{"id":7027,"date":"2014-02-14T16:35:53","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T21:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=7027"},"modified":"2014-02-14T16:35:53","modified_gmt":"2014-02-14T21:35:53","slug":"staples-controversy-what-are-they-hiding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2014\/02\/14\/staples-controversy-what-are-they-hiding\/","title":{"rendered":"Staples Controversy: What Are They Hiding?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Playing a protracted game of hide-and-seek, the USPS and Staples are refusing to come clean about the pilot program that outsources postal retail work to the office-supply chain.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/stop-staples.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-6981\" alt=\"stop-staples\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/stop-staples.gif\" width=\"190\" height=\"190\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The USPS brushed off the union\u2019s Nov. 22, 2013, 27-point request for information, claiming most of the requests were \u201coverly broad\u201d in scope, \u201cunduly burdensome\u201d or that the information sought was of a \u201cproprietary and\/or confidential nature.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On some matters the Postal Service also said the union must first \u201cexplain the relevance\u201d of the requested information to the union\u2019s responsibility. Much of the information the USPS did provide was redacted.<\/p>\n<p>The union challenged the Postal Service\u2019s response, and has filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a right to this information,\u201d APWU President Mark Dimondstein said, \u201cand we are going after it. But make no mistake: We are not going to win this fight by filing charges or submitting grievances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will only win if the members of the APWU and people of the country are willing to fight for a vibrant, public Postal Service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Staples Too<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>Postal workers also got the brush-off from Staples\u2019 corporate headquarters.<\/p>\n<p>In a Nov. 25 letter to Staples CEO Ron Sargent, the union president said, \u201cThe APWU supports expanding postal services to the people of this country and under the right circumstances we could support this program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, we have some serious concerns that need to be discussed and addressed.\u201d Dimondstein offered to meet in Washington or at a mutually agreeable date at the Staples headquarters, but the CEO refused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a matter of policy,\u201d the company responded, \u201cStaples does not discuss the terms of vendor agreements with third parties. Given this policy, we think it is appropriate for you to discuss your concerns directly with the U.S. Postal Service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Union members who wrote to Staples got a similar response.<\/p>\n<p>What are they trying to hide?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Playing a protracted game of hide-and-seek, the USPS and Staples are refusing to come clean about the pilot program that outsources postal retail work to the office-supply chain.\u00a0 The USPS brushed off the union\u2019s Nov. 22, 2013, 27-point request for information, claiming most of the requests were \u201coverly broad\u201d in scope, \u201cunduly burdensome\u201d or that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-apwu-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7027"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7028,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7027\/revisions\/7028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}