117 jobs to be cut as Toledo eliminates local mail sorting

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Nearly half of the jobs at a sorting center in northwest Ohio will be eliminated as the Postal Service moves its local mail-sorting operation to Michigan, workers were told this week.

About 117 jobs at the sorting center at Toledo’s main post office will be eliminated around mid-April, Postal Service spokesman David Van Allen told The Blade in Toledo. Employees who will be affected received formal notice of the changes this week.

The upcoming change means inbound mail to Toledo will be sorted 60 miles away in Detroit. Delivery trucks will run the mail to Toledo’s post office, where it will be transferred to other trucks for local delivery.

Congress is to blame for the cuts to Toledo’s sorting center, said Arnie Cowell, president of the Toledo American Postal Workers’ Union.

The mail agency has reported heavy losses in recent years as a result of congressionally mandated annual payments for future retiree health benefits.