The USPS will face significant delays in package deliveries as more than 8500 employees are retiring. This major change is expected to impact how quickly citizens receive their mail.
The Department of Government Efficiency offered thousands of USPS an early retirement incentive in an effort to work on the agency’s budget.
USPS employees are being offered $15,000, paid out by August 2026, should they choose to retire early.
Despite the nice payout, some employees fear this will detrimentally impact the USPS’ delivery times.
“I have no doubt that it will further delay the mail,” Janice Kelbe, a former USPS employee, told local ABC affiliate WMUR.
The budget cuts were discussed during an American Postal Workers conference in Washington, D.C.
At a conference, the Department of General Services (DOGE) and the USPS came together to form a new partnership. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy expressed that this collaboration would assist in identifying and implementing more efficient practices.
DeJoy told Congress that he asked the DOGE to review its “burdensome regulatory requirements restricting normal business practice.”
In his letter to Congress, he called the USPS system “broken,” stating that it must be fixed.
Postmaster General DeJoy acknowledged the considerable challenge of revamping a struggling organization that had suffered nearly $100 billion in losses and was at risk of losing an additional $200 billion, all without resorting to bankruptcy.
“Fixing a heavily legislated and overly regulated organization as massive, important, cherished, misunderstood and debated as the United States Postal Service, with such a broken business model, is even more difficult.”
The postmaster said the new plan will eliminate an estimated 10,000 jobs within the next 30 days.
This cutback isn’t unprecedented. In 2021, the agency cut 30,000 of its nearly 700,000 employees.
“The Doge team was gracious enough to ask for the big problems they can help us with,” he continued.
“The Postal Service once faced the immediate threat of insolvency, which would have required a taxpayer bailout.
“Now, the Postal Service is instead finally experiencing an unprecedented period of growth and innovation.”
While the majority of workers accepted the early retirement offer, the 1,500 employees who declined will not be laid off or penalized.
Dana Coletti, the president of the Manchester branch of the American Postal Workers Union, said the buyouts will affect the already low USPS retention rates.
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Only 50 employees accepted the retirement offer in New Hampshire, where Coletti is based, but she claimed that the handful of employees leaving will have a noticeable impact.
“If you’re in an office with only one employee and that employee decides to take the early retirement, now you have to try and backfill it with employees from another office,” Coletti told WMUR.
Some USPS employees believe that cutting staff will only hinder smaller communities, as many of them already struggle to receive mail in a timely manner.
“There isn’t automatically somebody who is qualified, and to fill in for them, is that post office just going to close down?” said Kelbe.
