Say goodbye to mail postmarked Tacoma or Olympia along with 168 South Sound postal jobs if a plan unveiled Thursday comes to fruition.
That U.S. Postal Service consolidation scheme is part of a larger nationwide plan to eliminate 223 mail processing facilities to save some $2.1 billion annually.
Mail now processed and sorted in Olympia and Tacoma will be handled in an underused postal facility in Seattle along with mail now sorted in Everett, if Congress doesn’t alter the plan by May 15.
Along with its Pine Street mail processing plant, Tacoma could lose its postmark. The same is true for mail now sorted in Olympia unless a postal patron requests special hand cancelling.
First class letters mailed in much of Washington would bear the postmarks of the state’s two remaining postal processing in Seattle and Spokane under the merger plan.
Under that economy scheme, Pasco, Wenatchee and Yakima postal processing facilities would be merged with an existing facility in Spokane.
The Postal Service blamed a 25 percent decline in First Class mail volume since 2006 for forcing the economy measures. The Postal Service lost $3.3 billion last quarter.
“It’s unfortunate it had to come to this,” said Ernie Swanson, a Northwest spokesman for the Postal Service. “We have to do something. We’re in a dire financial situation.”
The consolidation plan is part of a larger Postal Service program to reduce costs by $20 billion by 2015 nationwide.
Although other parts of that plan are still being studied, Saturday mail delivery may be one of its other casualties.
Consistent next day local delivery of first class mail could also fall victim to the merger plan because of the distances involved in transporting the mail to be sorted.
According to the recommendation reached after five months of study, 300 mail processing positions statewide will be eliminated. In Tacoma, the job cuts will amount to 139 workers. In Olympia, the number is 29.
While mail processing will move elsewhere, the retail and business operations at the processing centers will remain open, the Postal Service said.
Specific dates for the closures haven’t been announced, but the Postal Service has said in the past it wants to begin making those changes this summer. Postal workers now employed at the processing centers tagged for closure will have an opportunity to transfer to other locations or to move to other jobs if they’re available, said the postal service.
More than 300 jobs will be cut by the Postal Service in Washington as it consolidates eight mail processing centers into two, the agency said Thursday.
The facilities are being consolidated because of a 25 percent decline in first-class mail since 2006.
“It’s unfortunate it had to come to this,” said Ernie Swanson, a spokesman for the Postal Service. “We have to do something. We’re in a dire financial situation.”
Processing and distribution centers are closing in Everett, Olympia and Tacoma as operations are transferred to Seattle. Processing operations in Yakima, Wenatchee and Pasco are being transferred to Spokane.
The Postal Service hopes the cuts can be made through attrition without layoffs, Swanson said. Employees losing jobs can request transfers or move into jobs such as letter carrier, if there are openings,
The facility in Everett will lose 97 jobs, Olympia 29, Tacoma 139, Yakima 19, Wenatchee 20, and Pasco two.
As a result of the consolidation, most mail in Washington is likely to bear only postmarks from Seattle or Spokane. Patrons can still request a hand-stamp postmark at a local post office, Swanson said.
The consolidation decision came after a five-month study. Specific dates have not been set for the transition.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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