Tens of thousands of postal jobs could be eliminated under a drastic reorganization designed to rescue the Postal Service from a projected $2 billion deficit next year, sources said Thursday.
Postmaster General Marvin Runyon, who earned the nickname ”Carvin`
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Marvin” in a previous job, told key members of Congress his plan would help hold down postal rates-and improve mail service-by slashing unnecessary layers of management.
Runyon is to announce the reorganization Friday in Washington in a meeting to be televised at divisional offices across the nation.
Sources said Runyon proposes to cut sharply the number of top postal officers. He hopes to avoid massive layoffs by offering early retirement incentives.
In all, Runyon hopes to eliminate the jobs of about 30,000 of the 130,000 ”overhead” postal employees who never touch mail, sources said. Letter carriers and other union members would be less likely to be affected by cutbacks, but many will be offered early retirement.
”This appears to be the most drastic reorganization in the history of the Postal Service,” said Van Seagraves, a postal expert who publishes the Business Mailers Review newsletter. He estimated that the cutbacks could result in a reduction of 15,000 ”craft workers” in addition to the 30,000
”overhead” employees.
The Postal Service, with 734,000 employees, is the nation`s largest civilian employer.