Staples' Announcement a 'Ruse,' Says APWU
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Monday’s announcement by Staples
that it’s terminating its no-bid deal with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and
replacing it with an “approved shipper” program, “is a ruse,” says
American
Postal Workers Union (APWU) 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 that “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.”
Learn more here and
send a message to Staples here.
- AFL-CIO Now Blog; photo:
Dimondstein (left) and Nation’s Capital and Southern Maryland APWU president
Dena Briscoe at April 24 demo; photo by Chris Garlock