Mail carrier Tom Caldwell loads his truck at the East Ridge Post Office in this 2009 file photo.JOB CUTSIn Chattanooga, 223 jobs are on the chopping block as the U.S. Postal Service considers consolidating 252 processing and distribution centers nationally. Shutting down these centers will slow first-class mail from one- to three-day delivery to two- to three-day delivery.BY THE NUMBERS• Jobs at risk: 30,000 full time, 5,000 part time• Jobs to be cut by 2015: 220,000• Total USPS employment: 559,026Source: David Walton, spokesman for the USPS
The U.S. Postal Service is studying a plan that could cut up to 223 jobs by shutting down Chattanooga’s mail processing and distribution center.
The four-month study will determine whether the local center’s work can be taken over by the Postal Service’s North Metro Georgia center in Duluth, Ga.
The amount of first-class mail dropped 25 percent nationwide in the past five years as people shifted their bill payments and communication online, Postal Service figures show, while total mail dropped by more than 43 billion pieces in that same period.
“Right now, we’re losing money hand over fist,” said David Walton, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, which projects it will lose about $9 billion this year. “If we sit back and do nothing, we will go bankrupt.”