Some Springfield postal jobs to move to KC; union puts number at 200

Most of the functions of Springfield's mail processing center on Chestnut Expressway are expected to be moved to Kansas City in July, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service said today .

Spokeswoman Stacy St. John said she didn't immediately know how many jobs will be affected, but a union representative expected that number to be at least 200.

St. John said employees will be offered jobs, but most of them would not be in Springfield.

"Our facilities are much larger than the amount of mail we process," St. John said.

The News-Leader understood earlier today from an interview with St. John that the Springfield jobs would be moved to St. Louis, and reported that. But she later called to say that was incorrect.

The Springfield cuts are part of reductions nationwide that are expected to save the U.S. Postal Service $750 million, St. John said.

While the change affects the jobs of hundreds of Springfield employees, a local union representative said the real losers are the customers.

"The most important thing in my opinion is it's really going to hurt mail service nationwide," said Chris Bentley, local president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union. "That's basically the Postmaster General's plan, to lower service standards and virtually eliminate overnight delivery of mail."

The changes are expected to slightly increase the amount of time it takes to get a first-class letter from an average of about 2.2 days to 2.4 days, St. John said.

But Bentley and others say it will cause first-class mail that currently gets delivered the next day to be delayed another day or two.

"When people buy a first-class stamp, the expect first-class delivery standards," Bentley said. "People who buy first-class stamps will still pay first-class postage prices, but everybody's going to get third-class delivery standards.

"You have to do that if you're going to close all these processing plants."

Brad Todd, a clerk at the mail processing center, said he expects to lose his job of 24 years in Springfield and will have to move. His two sons, ages 14 and 19, attend school here, and Todd owns a house in Springfield.

Todd, who is also the secretary/treasurer of the local American Postal Workers Union, said he expects at least 200 jobs to be affected.

"The community will suffer a reduction in the quality of their service," said Todd. "You're talking about moving mail hundreds of miles if I want to mail a letter to my neighbor. Where it's now one day, it will be two or three days."

Todd said pay for the clerk jobs starts at $14 to $15 an hour and tops out at about $26 an hour.

Bentley said he's hopeful the service cuts will soon stop.

"Postal finances are actually good," he said. "The Postal Service has been making money every quarter this year."

He blamed a 2006 congressional order for the Postal Service to pre-fund future retirees' health care cost "decades out."

"That's only something the Postal Service has to do, and it's millions of dollars the Postal Service is supposed to just set aside."

He said he hopes the improved finances will convince Congress to remove the requirement.

"There's no need to shrink the postal network," he said. "It just harms the American people."

Sen. Claire McCaskill agrees.

"Reducing service standards in order to improve profitability is a backwards business model that's clearly backfiring," she said. "For jobs and communities across Missouri — including Springfield — postal service is critical, and these cuts are unacceptable. It's my hope that Congress can finally pass the meaningful postal reform legislations to keep open these facilities and help sustain the important services they provide."

News-Leader reporter Stephen Herzog contributed to this report.