{"id":8671,"date":"2014-10-10T15:15:34","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T20:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=8671"},"modified":"2014-10-10T15:15:34","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T20:15:34","slug":"pmg-expands-staples-dirty-deal-dont-buy-movement-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2014\/10\/10\/pmg-expands-staples-dirty-deal-dont-buy-movement-grows\/","title":{"rendered":"PMG Expands Staples Dirty Deal – \u2018Don\u2019t Buy\u2019 Movement Grows"},"content":{"rendered":"

10\/10\/2014<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>– APWU<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As the one-year anniversary of the Postal Service\u2019s no-bid deal with Staples approaches, the\u00a0<\/span>\u2018Don\u2019t Buy Staples\u2019<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>movement is continuing to grow.<\/p>\n

The USPS and Staples are upping the ante as well: On Oct. 7 management notified the APWU that it plans to expand the program to all 1,500 Staples stores in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no surprise that Staples and postal management are making a last-ditch effort to salvage this disastrous program,\u201d said APWU President Mark Dimondstein.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe forced them to back off somewhat from their original plan, and we will force them to back off from this expansion as well. The\u00a0<\/span>\u2018Don\u2019t Buy Staples\u2019<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>movement will go forward until Staples gets out of the postal business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision to expand the program demonstrates the need for even greater activism by APWU members and our allies throughout the country,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf management and Staples think this move will deter us, they underestimate the determination and fighting spirit of APWU members to defend the public Postal Service and our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out Front in Philadelphia<\/strong><\/p>\n

Plans were underway to expand protests to new locations long before management\u2019s \u00a0announcement.<\/p>\n

The union launched a series of ongoing protests in Philadelphia, also on Oct. 7, with an event in front of the Staples store on Chestnut Street, a busy downtown thoroughfare. Approximately 50 protesters passed out flyers and urged shoppers to buy office supplies elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot tolerate the Postal Service making a sweetheart deal, a compact, with the Staples organization, to give away good-paying, union jobs to, unfortunately, low-paying, non-union jobs,\u201d Eastern Region Coordinator Mike Gallagher told protesters.<\/p>\n

The Postal Service\u2019s stated ambition in the Staples deal is to bring in more revenue for the Postal Service, he said. \u201cBut when we made requests for information, we found documents that clearly showed that their motivation is to take advantage of lower-paid employees and to shorten the hours or close post offices.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cynthia Heyward, recording secretary of Philadelphia Area Local, told the\u00a0<\/span>Philadelphia Inquirer\u00a0<\/span><\/em>that management is deliberately understaffing post offices to drive customers away. \u201cThey are not replacing [postal workers]. We don\u2019t have enough employees to do the job,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The protest was organized by the Philadelphia Area Local and the local Retirees Chapter, with support from the Philly BMC Local,\u00a0Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, NALC, Mail Handlers Union, AFGE, CWA, SEIU and Fight for Philly. It received extensive media coverage.<\/p>\n

Another \u2018Smoking Gun\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The USPS vehemently denies its no-bid deal with Staples is designed to reduce hours at post offices or privatize operations.<\/p>\n

But in a Nov. 8, 2011, letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a USPS vice president wrote, \u201cOver the last five years, our current retail strategy has resulted in an increase in alternate access revenue from 24% to 35% of our total retail revenue. This is one of the contributing factors that enabled operations to reduce window work hours by 23.7% during the same period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could it be any clearer?<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blue Shirt Thursday<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the Philadelphia BMC, workers wear blue\u00a0<\/span>Stop Staples<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>T-shirts every Thursday. \u201cIt\u2019s our way of \u00a0saying \u2018No!\u2019 to PMG Donahoe\u2019s plot to steal window clerk jobs and give them to Staples,\u201d Local \u00a0President Vince Tarducci wrote in a flyer co-authored by the local Mail Handlers Union president.<\/p>\n

Wearing the T-shirts every week builds solidarity and lets management know we\u2019re united, Tarducci \u00a0said.\u00a0Workers who don’t have\u00a0<\/span>Stop Staples<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>shirts wear other blue T-shirts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10\/10\/2014\u00a0– APWU As the one-year anniversary of the Postal Service\u2019s no-bid deal with Staples approaches, the\u00a0\u2018Don\u2019t Buy Staples\u2019\u00a0movement is continuing to grow. The USPS and Staples are upping the ante as well: On Oct. 7 management notified the APWU that it plans to expand the program to all 1,500 Staples stores in the U.S. \u201cIt\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apwu-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8671","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=8671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8673,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8671\/revisions\/8673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}