A new partnership between the U.S. Postal Service and corporate giant Staples could be detrimental to union workers. Ed Schultz and Mark Dimondstein discuss the impact.
The four unions representing rank and file postal workers have sent the following letter to Darrel Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and Elijah Cummings, the Ranking Member:
Dear Mr. Issa and Mr. Cummings:
We write to share our views on the hearing held on April 8, 2014 on the President’s proposals in the FY 2015 budget regarding the U.S. Postal Service. We write on behalf of nearly 500,000 postal employees who live and work in every Congressional District in America and who belong to our unions. We respectfully request that this letter be included in the record of the hearing. Read the rest of this entry »
APWU Web News Article #064-14, April 9, 2014
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The Postal Service needs real reform — not the austerity proposed by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and the White House, APWU President Mark Dimondstein said after an April 8 hearing by a House committee. The hearing of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which Rep. Issa chairs, focused on White House budget items concerning the Postal Service. Unfortunately, Issa found a lot to like in the administration’s proposals.
President Dimondstein’s remarks are below:
“Yesterday’s hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, focused on a White House budget that would harm service, drive away business, and eliminate jobs. It calls for the immediate end of Saturday delivery and would allow the Postal Service to begin to shift from door delivery to centralized delivery. Many of the concepts in the administration’s budget can be found in H.R. 2748, a bill sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa.
“The proposed budget also fails to eliminate the pre-funding requirement of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which is the fundamental cause of the Postal Service’s manufactured financial crisis. Instead, it would simply restructure the payments. The pre-funding requirement is consistently cited as justification for shuttering mail processing plants, lowering service standards and slowing the mail.
“These budget proposals were first developed in 2011 and have been repeated in proposals since then. They weren’t worthy proposals then and they certainly aren’t now.
“With the Postal Service posting operating profits in mail and package delivery, there is absolutely no justification to continue a strategy of austerity. Instead of damaging the infrastructure and network that is essential for providing service, the Postal Service must expand service. The recent report by USPS Office of Inspector General that endorses offering financial services is the exactly the kind of innovation that is needed.”
From the American Postal Workers Union:
APWU local leaders are hard at work organizing protests for the APWU’s National Day of Action on April 24 at Staples Stores around the country. Union members and supporters will oppose a sweetheart deal between the office-supply retail chain and the Postal Service.
Click here for a list of locations [PDF] where protests are currently planned. If you are planning a protest and it is not yet listed, please contact Anna Woodbury at awoodbury@apwu.org or 202-842-4250.
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Authorized Officers: Order Staples protest material |
APWU Web News Article #061-14, April 7, 2014
The Postal Service and Staples are working overtime to keep the details of their sweetheart deal a secret, but a hearing before the National Labor Relations Board — and documents the USPS was forced to provide to the APWU — have revealed some disturbing truths.
“Staples and postal management are perpetrating a fraud on the American people,” said Clint Burelson, APWU Clerk Craft director. “They are promoting the deal as though taking your mail to Staples is the same as taking it to the Post Office.
“It’s not,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »
APWU’s Rich Shelley sends USPS’s Postal Police home!
Elmwood Park (Chicago Area) Staples Pilot Program protest.
More info: www.stopstaples.com
Hundreds of Chicago Postal Workers,
Joined by Labor and Community Activists,
Protest Outsourcing of U.S. Post Office Services to Staples
Message to Staples: Staff Postal Counters with Postal Employees
Members of the American Postal Workers Union from the Chicago area, joined by hundreds of labor and community activists, will protest on Saturday, April 5, in Elmwood Park, against a deal between the U.S. Postal Service and Staples to move mail services into Staples stores.
Who: APWU President Mark Dimondstein, hundreds of APWU members, labor and community activists from the Chicago-area and across the nation
What: Protest against USPS’ outsourcing of services
When: Saturday, April 5, 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Where: Elmwood Park Staples Store – 1850 N Harlem Ave, Elmwood Park, IL 60707
In 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.
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.
The Elmwood Park protest is the latest in a series of protests by postal workers and supporters against Staples’ program.
“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.”
“As a nation, we need to decide what kind of Postal Service we want,” he said. “Are we going to have a vibrant, modern, public mail system, or are we going to let privatizers kill this great institution?”
“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.”
Postal workers and supporters are planning for a National Day of Action with scores of protests planned for April 24 at Staples stores across the country. For more information, consumers can text “postal” to 91990, or visit StopStaples.com
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The American Postal Workers Union represents 200,000 employees of the United States Postal Service, and is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
APWU Web News Article #060-14, April 3, 2014
Postal Support Employees should beware of management’s latest ploy, union leaders are warning: Beginning in April, the Postal Service plans to ask non-career employees to take Voice of the Employee (VOE) surveys.
Management is after a lot more than meets the eye, according to APWU Executive Vice President Debby Szeredy. “What management won’t tell you is that historically the USPS has used the Voice of the Employee data against workers at the negotiating table,” she said. The surveys have been a point of contention between the USPS and APWU since 1998, when management first cited survey data during bargaining; the APWU National Executive Board responded by adopting a resolution opposing “the use of surveys, focus groups, polls, audits, as a means of interviewing employees and union officials to evaluate job-related and internal issues.” Read the rest of this entry »
APWU Web News Article #057-14, April 1, 2014
The APWU has reached a Tentative Agreement with the USPS on a Collective Bargaining Agreement covering postal nurses. “The tentative contract resolves all the articles that were in dispute,” said Support Services Craft Director Steve Brooks. “It will provide new benefits and will clarify working conditions for postal nurses represented by the National Postal Professional Nurses Local, APWU,” he said. In addition, as a result of an Occupational Health Nurse Business Plan, management will post 38 new positions, Brooks said. Read the rest of this entry »
APWU Web News Article #058-14, April 1, 2014
The postal provisions in the budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) on April 1 are a “thinly-veiled attempt to plunder the Postal Service — to slash service, cut workers’ benefits, and render our great national treasure ripe for privatization,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein.
They’re also based on a fallacy, Dimondstein points out: The USPS did not have “an operating loss of $1 billion” in fiscal year 2013, as Rep. Ryan asserts.
“In fact, the Postal Service had an operating surplus of $600 million in fiscal year 2013. The Postal Service’s losses are the result of a manufactured crisis — the legislative requirement that forces the USPS to pre-fund healthcare benefits for future retirees 75 years in advance and within a 10-year period,” Dimondstein said. Read the rest of this entry »
