Chicago
— Over 700 postal and other workers walked a picket line in front of a
Chicago area Staples store on April 5. The protesters marched back and
forth over the block-long sidewalk for an hour and a half, chanting
“Whose Postal Office? The People’s Post Office!” Many wore T-shirts
that read: “Stop Staples. The U.S. Mail Is Not for Sale.”
Two members of the U.S. Postal Police and a U.S. Postal Service
supervisor watched the protest, even though this Staples store features
no postal counter. Marchers were angered by the USPS attempt to
intimidate and track off-duty postal workers, and union officials plan
to file a grievance over the unwarranted spying.
Organized
by the American Postal Workers Union, the rally’s target was a deal
between the U.S. Postal Service and Staples to move mail services into
Staples stores.
Last October, the USPS announced a no-bid, sweetheart deal to open
postal counters in more than 80 Staples stores. The Staples postal
counters are less secure than public post offices and they are staffed
with low-wage Staples employees.
Packages dropped off at Staples stores are placed in unsecured
containers and, as the Approved Postal Provider Agreement notes,
packages and letters at Staples stores are not considered “mail” until
they are picked up by the Postal Service.
The U.S. Postal Service and Staples plan to expand this “pilot”
project to 1,500 Staples locations nationwide, while the USPS eliminates
public post offices.
“This is a bad deal for consumers, for workers and for the country,”
said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “It makes no sense to transfer
critical public services to a private, for-profit company that has
closed 159 stores in the past year and recently announced it will close
225 more stores by the end of next year.
“Instead of using public resources to bail out a struggling company,
the USPS should use its unmatched nationwide network of people and
facilities to take advantage of new opportunities, such as package
delivery for e-commerce sales and offering new services — like low-cost
basic banking — that meet the needs of American consumers. …
“If we’re going to have mini-Post Offices in Staples stores, they
should be operated by uniformed postal employees, who have taken an oath
and are accountable to the American people.” (APWU press release, April
4)
Privatization’s goal: Low wages
At an April 1 National Labor Relations Board hearing — the result of
an Unfair Labor Practice charge filed by the APWU — a December 2012
internal USPS document revealed secret details of the sweetheart deal,
named the Retail Partner Expansion Program:
“The pilot will be used to determine if lower costs can be realized
with retail partner labor instead of the labor traditionally associated
with retail windows at Post Offices. …
“Transferring USPS product and service transactions to retail partner
locations should allow USPS to cut costs associated with window labor
time and credit card transaction fees. Initial analysis suggests that
Retail Partners can sell USPS products and services at a projected
cost-to-serve of $0.16 per revenue dollar, which is less than a third of
the cost-to-serve observed at traditional Post Offices.”
(apwu.org/news/April 7)
The 58-page agreement reveals Staples is getting a discount on postal
products, but customers will pay full price. The amount of the discount
was redacted in the document.
In plain language, the deal is intended to sidestep labor costs by
transferring window-clerk duties to private businesses. It adds up to
privatization and an attack on the living wages that the APWU and other
postal unions have won over decades of struggle.
And the Staples deal is just the first step to place these postal
counters “in leading national and regional retailers’ store locations
nationwide.”
According to USPS witness Brian Code’s testimony at the NLRB hearing,
postal executives studied postal retail trends in Germany, Great
Britain, Sweden, Australia, Canada and other countries, and used them as
models for the program. Postal retail operations are privately owned
and operated in many of those countries, such as 98 percent in Germany,
88 percent in Sweden and 81 percent in Australia. Lower wages, fewer
benefits and slower mail service are common features in privatized mail
firms.
Since the privatization of Britain’s Royal Mail last year, its mail
agency has eliminated 1,600 jobs, increased the price of stamps by 35
percent, sold postal data into private hands and granted the company’s
boss a pay raise of almost $2.5 million.
The British example undoubtedly serves as the ultimate goal of corporate, congressional and postal executives.
Thousands of postal workers and supporters are planning to march on
April 24, a National Day of Action, with protests planned at Staples
stores across the country. For more information, readers can visit
StopStaples.com.
WW photos: Joseph Piette
