American Postal Workers – The announcement by Staples yesterday, indicating it is terminating its no-bid deal with the U.S. Postal Service and replacing it with an “approved shipper” program, “is a ruse,” says American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein.
Staples and the USPS are changing the name of the program, without addressing the fundamental concerns of postal workers and postal customers. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.
Dimondstein says the Staples announcement, along with a July 7 letter from the USPS, “makes it clear. They intend to continue to privatize postal retail operations, replace living-wage Postal Service jobs with low-wage Staples jobs and compromise the safety and security of the mail.” He adds:
This attempt at trickery shows that the ‘Don’t Buy Staples’ movement is having an effect. We intend to keep up the pressure until Staples gets out of the mail business. The U.S. Mail Is Not for Sale.
Boston Globe – Staples Inc. next month will end a pilot program that featured Postal Service counters staffed by Staples employees in 82 of the chain’s stores. Instead, the office-supply retailer will be an approved shipper for the Postal Service. Under the new arrangement, the stores can also offer services for other mail providers, such as UPS and Fedex.
Framingham-based Staples and the Postal Service began their program in November. It allowed the chain to provide about 80 percent of the services offered by a post office but drew criticism from postal unions, which said it amounted to privatization of a basic government function.
The American Postal Workers Union called the move a ruse. Staples and the Postal Service “are changing the name of the program without addressing the fundamental concerns,” it said.