Postal Service expects 15,000 to 20,000 buyouts

WASHINGTON — In another attempt to put a dent in the huge financial loses suffered by the U.S. Postal Service, the agency has negotiated a buyout plan with its largest labor organization, the American Postal Workers Union.

The union said full-time career employees are eligible for a $15,000 payment in two installments; $10,000 in May of 2013 and $5,000 a year later. Most who take the offer will leave at the end of January.

“Our goal was to achieve an incentive for members who are ready to end their postal careers; to ensure that no groups of employees are excluded, and to lessen the hardships of excessing for those who remain,” union President Cliff Guffey said. “This agreement accomplishes those objectives.”

The Postal Service said 115,155 employees, including clerks, mechanics, drivers, custodians and some administrative personnel represented by the APWU, are eligible for the buyout, and 15,000 to 20,000 are expected to take it.

Though announced this week, the buyout agreement was signed last Friday, two days before the Postal Service defaulted on a $5.6 billion payment to the Treasury to prefund retiree health benefits. It also missed an August payment of $5.5 billion.

The Postal Service, which gets no tax money for its operating expenses, posted a third-quarter loss of $5.2 billion, significantly greater than its $3.1 billion loss for the same April-June period last year.

The agency announced in May that it was working with its unions on retirement incentives.

“The Postal Service has reduced the size of its workforce by 244,000 career employees since 2000 without resorting to layoffs,” Megan Brennan, the Postal Service’s chief operating officer, said at the time. “We are a responsible employer, and we will work with our employees to ensure a smooth transition to a much leaner organization.”

Part of that transition is the ongoing move to close postal facilities and consolidate operations. The current plan calls for closing 140 mail processing plants, out of 461, by February and shutting 89 others by February 2014. That timetable could change, as it has before, if “circumstances of the Postal Service change in the interim,” an agency news release said.

“When fully implemented in late 2014, the Postal Service expects its network consolidations to generate approximately $2.1 billion in annual cost reductions and lead to total workforce reduction up to 28,000 employees,” it said.

The buyouts are a small part of a larger strategy the Postal Service is pursuing in hope of digging out of a deep financial hole. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has a five-pronged legislative wish list that would allow five-day, instead of six-day, mail delivery; change the mandate to prefund retiree health benefits; refund to the USPS $11 billion in pension plan overpayments; remake the workers’ compensation program; and allow the Postal Service to offer a greater range of products.

He also wants to withdraw postal employees from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program in favor of an agency-run program, but it is unlikely the unions would approve of that.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.