USPS Tells Customers: Abandon Neighborhood Post Offices; Go to Staples

Tue, 12/23/2014 - 9:12pm
Postal management has launched a new offensive – one that clearly reveals the sinister goals of its no-bid deal with Staples.
 
The USPS is now using postal funds to mail ads for 20% discounts on USPS shipping services at Staples stores. The intent is clear: to incentivize customers to abandon their neighborhood post offices in favor of the private office-supply retailer.
 
Next, management will almost certainly conduct a study and discover that traffic is down in post offices. And they will say that justifies reducing service hours and work hours or closing the offices completely. 
 
This ad underscores why we must continue to fight the Postal Service’s dirty deal with Staples. Postal workers and customers are responding by returning the ad to sender. 
 
Here’s what you can do:
  • Post a picture of yourself with the ad or with a note card where you’ve written, #ReturnToSender on Facebook or Twitter.
  • Ask your family and friends to do the same. And ask them to take their business elsewhere until Staples gets out of the postal business.
  • If you receive a coupon in the mail, cross out the address and barcode, write “Return to Sender,” and drop it in the mail. 
Here are some sample tweets:
 
 
 
 
 
In solidarity,
Mark Dimondstein
President, American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO
Why We’re Boycotting

In the fall of 2013, the Postal Service and Staples implemented a pilot program that established knock-off post offices in 82 Staples stores. The postal counters are staffed with low-wage Staples employees rather than highly-trained USPS employees.

In July, after the union launched a ‘Don’t Buy Staples’ campaign, the USPS and Staples discontinued the trial, but replaced it with a modified version of the program, which it plans to expand to all 1,500 U.S. Staples stores.

The APWU objects to the deal because it privatizes the retail operations of the public Postal Service; transfers living-wage, union jobs to low-wage jobs, and compromises the safety and security of the mail.

The ‘Don’t Buy Staples’ campaign has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, AFSCME, SEIU, the International Association of Firefighters, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, our sister postal unions and many other labor organizations.

 

For more information, visit www.StopStaples.com.