Local union leaders are winning allies for the union’s campaign against a pilot program that placed postal retail centers in more than 80 Staples stores, reports Northeast Region Coordinator John Dirzius.

Jim Bertolone, President of the Rochester Area Local, and Mike Dennehy, Vice President of the Greater CT Area Local, asked their state AFL-CIO federations to send letters to Staples stores to express displeasure with the decision to staff postal counters with non-postal employees.

In letters to Staples management, Mario Cilento, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, and Lori J. Pelletier, executive secretary-treasurer of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, called the Staples retail postal units a disservice to postal workers, Staples customers, and the local economy.

“Any postal service plan with Staples that would privatize middle-class jobs and replace them with low wage jobs…is simply unacceptable.”

While the Staples program is currently limited to four regional areas — Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Central Massachusetts, and California — it could be expanded to all of Staples 1,600 stores nationwide.

Staples Controversy: Illinois Local Delivers the Message

Postal workers in Springfield IL delivered a letter to the city’s Staples franchise on Jan. 14 voicing opposition to the retail chain’s plans for opening pilot postal retail units staffed by non-USPS employees in more than 80 Staple stores.

Though none of the pilot locations are in Illinois, APWU members expressed their strong disapproval in the letter delivered by Lincoln Land Area Local President James O’Connell.

Only U.S. Postal Service postal employees, they wrote, “are fully accountable to the public, and sworn to uphold the sanctity of the mail.”

The store’s manager accepted the letter from O’Connell but had no comment, referring the matter to a Staples district manager.

A television camera sent by a local TV channel was denied entry into the store to film the exchange. Click here to see the ABC affiliate’s story.

via APWU