Postal management informed the APWU in writing that the “Approved Shipper” program in Staples stores will be shut down by the end of February 2017. This victory concludes the APWU’s three-year struggle. The boycott against Staples is over!
“I salute and commend every member and supporter who made this victory possible,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “I never doubted that if we stayed the course, stuck together and kept the activist pressure on, we would win this fight.”
APWU Sprung Into Action
“The Staples pilot was an acceleration in the privatization of retail services and a direct assault on our jobs,” said Dimondstein. “It was time to draw a line in the sand.”
“We wasted no time swinging into action,” Dimondstein continued.
Early in 2014, the Stop Staples campaign started to put pressure on Staples and the USPS. On April 24, 2014, APWU members staged a country-wide National Day of Action with 56 Stop Staples protests in 27 states. After this, the APWU launched the official Staples Boycott.
The APWU delegates to the 2014 National Convention reaffirmed the Stop Staples fight, authorizing necessary resources for the campaign. A thousand delegates took to the streets in front of a Staples store in downtown Chicago, IL, proclaiming, “The U.S. Mail is Not for Sale!”
“If Staples was going to take our work and jobs for their private profit, we were going to hit back and affect their bottom line,” Dimondstein explained. The APWU launched StopStaples.com where tens of thousands pledged to join the boycott. The union also engaged in a postcard campaign which resulted in over 100,000 postcards delivered to Staples’ CEO.
The entire labor movement showed great solidarity with the APWU. Many national unions endorsed the boycott including large teacher unions, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA). The other postal unions enthusiastically supported the campaign. The 12 million worker-strong AFL-CIO added Staples to their official boycott list. UNI the Global Union, an international union association, endorsed the Staples boycott urging all of the affiliated unions throughout the world to put pressure on Staples, since the company does business in 26 countries. Dozens of state AFL-CIO federations, local unions, Central Labor Councils, community allies and city councils passed resolutions endorsing the boycott.
Kept Up the Pressure
The fight continued for another two and a half years, but APWU members did not give up. Constant pressure was maintained, especially in Atlanta, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Protesters held signs and distributed leaflets in front of Staples stores across the country. APWU members and supporters spoke with prospective Staples customers and answered questions about what the protest was about and why they should not shop there. Many customers chose to respect the boycott.
In February 2015, the APWU released two research papers critical of Staples’ proposed $5.5 billion merger with Office Depot and met with the staff of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) examining the merger. The FTC eventually blocked the merger and Staples was forced to pay a $250 million penalty to Office Depot.
The APWU carried out investigations that proved Staples was shortchanging the Postal Service in revenue, undermining the security of the mail and trashing the Postal Service’s brand. The union requested a USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation that further proved these facts. The APWU won a series of cases before the National Labor Relations Board culminating in a recent Administrative Law Judge’s decision that said the USPS failed to bargain with the union over the subcontracting of postal work to Staples.
“This is not only a victory regarding the Staples’ dirty deal,” Dimondstein said. “In regards to the USPS’s planned retail privatization expansion to dozens of other corporations, those companies have largely backed-off and gotten the message – mess with postal workers and customers and you will have to tangle with the APWU family!”
“With the Staples deal out of the way, there is a fresh opportunity for postal management and the APWU to consider the future expansion and improvement of retail operations without these misguided privatization schemes that undermine great service, good jobs, and a strong postal brand.” President Dimondstein said.
President Dimondstein applauds “the many local and state organizations that joined in the fight; our retiree and auxiliary chapters who stepped up with enthusiasm; APWU National officers and staff who stayed the course; and especially the many Stop Staples activists, active and retired, career and non-career, who worked day-in and day-out to see this struggle through and were the heart and soul of the campaign.
“A job well-done, Sisters and Brothers!” said Dimondstein. “The struggle continues and this victory helps strengthen and steel us for the battles ahead.”
Pay all APWU memebers back wages for failure to bargain with the union in good Faith!
Postal Circus has not paid one dime into pre-funding retirement since 2009.(it’s called default) since 2009 the Postal Circus has lost over $105 Billion……..this does not include pre-funding, which former PMG Donehoe and OPM said was a red herring. Stalin once said tell a big lie often enough and people (useful idiots) will believe it is the truth………which you do every chance you can get to run cover for corrupt, incompetent, low IQ, no university educated, postal bureaucrats.
US Postal Circus, according to GAAP accounting rules, is bankrupt…….propped up by a corrupt Federal Government.
Dear SGT. Joe Friday, Mr. genius Carl Icahn would ask the question “why is the Postal Service, and only the Postal Service, required to pre fund health care costs 75 years in advance? One would be required to look no further than incompetent Congress! So until UPS and Fed EX is required to pre fund health care costs, one can cry all they want about the “deficits”. Thank ex President Forrest Gump, and Congress. President Forrest Gump couldn’t find his famous “weapons of mass deception” However he found a way to destroy the Postal Service. Now to just take away the retirement and health benefits away from the retired people, and destroy the unions. Now that is the way to save the Postal Service!
scr the USPS tried to cut your friction throat and throw your lifeless remains in a bottomless pit! You want to commend them for what, not cutting your throat?
Actually,there never was much,if any demand at all;for”postal shipping”,at Staples. Addmittedly,a rarity,we should also commend USPS for closing virtually no post office(local) stations,since 2013. So long-time USPS customers,along with newer younger customers,simply found the nearest post-office more convenient for shipping than Staples. Interestingly,Staples simultaneously,had several rounds of store-closings. And to my knowledge,Staples continues to lose money.
The postal service isn’t losing money!
Chelsea Clinton must use the same government accounts as the post office. she has never had a real job, yet has a reported net worth of $15 million dollars. must be that democrat white privilege thingy thing? bet she shops at staples!
Obammy’s PMG Brennen was not invited to Trump Tower. that in itself is a good sign.I for one would love to see President Trump bring in wall street billionaire finance genius Carl Icahn to do a “Fortune 500” accounting audit of the post office, its yearly finances do not make any sense whatsoever if you use the generally accepted accounting principles as taught at all top business schools. if it walks like a corrupt duck, quacks like a corrupt duck, and flies like a corrupt duck, well, it most likely is corrupt. that PFP bonus line item should see the light of day, loss of $billions and they get bonus money? on phony numbers? using reasonable man doctrine, you just know there is just one big skim going on by po mismanagement. human nature will tell you those who protest this the most are probably getting the biggest skim. if you were gaining from the corruption would you want the status quo to end, of course you would not, you would yell and scream and try to deflect blame from your criminal acts-its what criminals do! UPS/FDX make billions and the PO loses Billions? what the fcuk?
Trump’s going to be Maggie’s worst nightmare after he rips her a new one.
Trump has no respect for her because she’s just some inbred ass-kissing clown with worthless on-line degrees…he knows she couldn’t run a lemonade stand.
Time to drain the pistal swamp!
what a scam this was…..shop at staples all the time……..DemonKKKat Sen Diane Feinstein and her hubby crooked Richard Blum made over $1 Billion Dollars selling/leasing/re-buying postal property….thousands of A-PEE-U workers forced to move over 500 miles in Mid-West, many forced to be letter carriers. 1% yearly raise under Demonrat Obammy for 8 years. 3 major postal unions and postal rural delivery union are just govt company unions………….dead, in his grave 25 years Jimmy Hoffa could get more than a 1% yearly raise……..it all just fake news………po is corrupt to its core and needs a big audit/investigation like the NYPD Knapp Cpmmission of the 1970’s……and why not? what do they have to hide? results would even make Ken Lay of Enron fame blush! what the A-PEE-U did to new workers under Cliff Guffy and Fat Boy Mike Morris is criminal. President Trump Drain The Swamp At The Post Office. over $105 Billion Loss since 2009 is a criminal act by itself…….what Fortune 500 Company could lose that muck and still be in business? according to Federal Office of Personnel Management, using GAAP Accounting Rules…..the PO is bankrupt! 2009-2017…..run by Demonrats!
So, Staples cannot have postal stations in house, big deal! How many Staples stores even exist anymore. I am much more concerned about the existing contract stations that take away thousands of postal jobs. In our city of only 110,000, we have 11 of these places, each staffed with non postal people, yet they do all the work our retail clerks do, and now they even have new computers, which are the same ones postal clerks use. I know there was supposedly a stop to making new contract stations, but they should not be allowed to expand their services, either, should they?
One of the few organizations fighting the move to make America a right to work for free nation is the unions! The Ratpublicans want to take our country back to the 18 th century. They think workers have only the right to work, nothing else. I notice that local taxes, utilities, food, health care, drugs, and business service charges is going up, while wages are frozen, or going down. Remember, the meek will inherit nothing! Just as in the 19 th and early 20 th century when the unions took to the streets and fought, time has come to do the same. I became a member of the Illinois Labor History Society and enjoy learning the history of the struggle of labor.