The U.S. Postal Service, after backing off plans to close rural post offices, will stick with its proposal to shut mail-processing centers, eliminating 5 percent of its workforce and saving $2.1 billion annually.

The service, after a loss of $3.2 billion in the quarter ended March 31 and predicting it will temporarily run out of cash in October, intends to close about 140 plants in the next year and about 90 in 2014, Chief Operating Officer Megan Brennan told reporters today on a conference call. A first phase will save $1.2 billion a year, she said.

The service has forecast a $9.1 billion loss for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 and had said it might shut as many as 223 of its 461 processing plants to consolidate operations in fewer places as mail volume declines. Lawmakers including U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, have asked the service to keep the plants open, including one that employs 250 people in his state.