February 19, 2017

Postal workers kill Staples privatization scheme

Truth Out - The Staples boycott is over, and the union won. The Postal Workers announced that the Postal Service will terminate its deal with Staples, closing down the 540 "mini-post offices" inside stores by the end of February and nixing plans to expand them to all 1,600 locations.

The union fought for three years against the deal, which amounted to contracting out post office work to the low-wage, non-union office retailer.

Staples opened its first postal counters in 2013. They offered a selection of the services APWU members provide at post office windows, including stamp sales, first-class domestic and international mail, and priority and express mail. Customers paid the same rates they would in a real post office -- but Staples got a discount from the Postal Service, and pocketed the difference as profit.

"This victory goes far beyond Staples," said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. "We have strong reason to believe this was their plan for postal retail for most of the country. We believe they had a number of these deals in the pipeline. By us with our allies taking this to the streets, those other deals fell through."

1 comment:

Jenefer Ellingston said...

Hurrah! what a joyful victory. Who remembers that creation of US Postal Service is in our CONSTITUTION- it is a Public Service, not a commercial entreprize