Christine Dugas, a Postal Service spokeswoman, said the Postal Service is moving other work to Indian Orchard.
SPRINGFIELD — The U.S. Postal Service will likely move the handling and sorting of cards and letters from its facility on Fiberloid Street in the Indian Orchard neighborhood in August to Hartford, said Daniel Kuralt, president Local 497 of the American Postal Workers Union.
On Thursday, the USPS, which is nearly bankrupt, said it will go ahead with plans to cut costs by closing nearly 250 mail processing centers.
Kuralt estimates that the entire facility has 1,600 to 2,000 workers and he predicted that there won’t be any layoffs as a result of the move. The postal service will instead cut staff through attrition.
“There is talk about a retirement incentive package,” Kuralt said Thursday . “Nobody is going to lose their job here in Springfield.”
Christine G. Dugas, a Postal Service spokeswoman, said the Postal Service is moving other work to Indian Orchard. Specifically, Indian Orchard will do more processing of “flats,” the Postal Service term of for magazines and envelopes that are about the same size as a magazine.
The Postal Service also handles parcels and bulk mail, like letters sent out as advertising, at Indian Orchard, Dugas said.
Kuralt said the Postal Service is moving forward with the closings out of frustration with the U.S. Congress over a requirement that the Postal Service pre-pay retirement and health-care costs to the tune of $75 billion over 10 years.