Atlanta APWU Members Brave Cold to ‘Stop Staples’
March 4, 2014
Seventy-five APWU members and supporters braved cold weather and high winds on March 4 to protest outside a Staples store in Atlanta and demand that the company staff “postal counters” in its stores with postal employees. Atlanta is one of four test sites of a USPS program that outsources postal retail operations.
APWU members were joined by representatives of the National Association of Letter Carriers and the AFL-CIO, as well as the Atlanta chapter of Jobs with Justice.
Atlanta Metro Area Local President William Flanagan was interviewed by several television and radio stations, as well as area newspapers.
Foot-traffic outside the store on Peachtree Road was light, participants report, but the protest was very visible from four lanes of traffic on the busy street. Many motorists honked their horns to show support and gave protesters a thumbs-up as they drove by.
In the weeks ahead, the local will stage protests at various Staples stores in the area to spread the message: The U.S. Mail Is Not for Sale!
“We really got the message out,” Flanagan said. “Mail is more important than ink pens and paper products. Trained, uniformed postal employees should be handling customers’ mail.”