Staples Rings NASDAQ Bell, Protesters 'Ruin Their Day'
May 1, 2016
“Please don’t do this… You are ruining their day.”
(This article first appeared in the May-June 2016 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)
Activists crashed Staples’ party on March 15, protesting in front of the NASDAQ building in Times Square, while company executives gathered to ring the stock market’s opening bell.
Holding Stop Staples posters, the demonstrators gathered outside the glass front of the building at 9:15, just before the ceremonial bell-ringing. Protestors could see in, and the Staples and NASDAQ executives could see out. Activist Dennis O’Neil said that after the executives saw the protestors, “their cell phone cameras came out.”
A high-ranking security officer soon came outside and approached O’Neil.
“You know what he said to me?” O’Neil recounted with a laugh. “He said, ‘Please don’t do this. This is their day. You are ruining their day.’”
“I told him, ‘Staples is ruining the day of postal workers, customers and their own employees around the country. We will do everything we can to ruin Staples’ day.’”
Throughout the exchange, the protesters held their Don’t Buy Staples posters high. Just before the actual bell-ringing, NASDAQ executives lowered shades, blocking the view of their highly-touted ceremony.
“It was way too late,” O’Neil said. “We were really successful hitting this, even if we didn’t see the bell rung.”
Stop Staples activists in New York City and around the country have been protesting outside Staples stores on a regular basis and vow to keep the heat on the office-supply chain until they get out of the mail business.
“Staples stock has been plummeting in recent months, at least in part as a result of the boycott,” President Dimondstein pointed out. And Fortune magazine said the company is “desperate for new avenues of growth as the odds of its planned $5.5 billion acquisition of Office Depot grow slimmer by the day.”
Committee protested in front of a Monaca, PA, location.
across Manhattan on an almost daily basis.
The 500 Club: Stop Staples NYC Reaches Major Milestone
Stop Staples supporters regularly hold demonstrations in Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco – and New York City.
The Stop Staples committee in the Big Apple reached a major milestone on March 29: Activists passed out flyers at their 500th protest outside a Staples store and earned 500 “likes” on their Facebook page.
NLRB Hearing Gets to the Heart of the Matter
After months of procedural wrangling, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing on charges that the Postal Service illegally subcontracted work to Staples resumed for three days in late February, finally getting to the heart of the matter. The case is scheduled to continue on May 18.
The first and only witness of the first three days of hearings, APWU Manager of Negotiations Support Phil Tabbita, testified about numerous USPS documents that revealed that management’s goals in the Staples program include reducing labor costs by transferring the work of window clerks to Staples employees. He was questioned by NRLB Region 5 General Counsel Daniel M. Heltzer, who is representing the NLRB in the complaint against the Postal Service.
During Tabbita’s testimony, the NLRB General Counsel introduced several documents that the Postal Service and Staples insisted were confidential. For a portion of all three days, the hearing was temporarily closed to the public while the documents were discussed.
Among the observers cleared from the hearing room on the first day were activists from New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, wearing Stop Staples T-shirts.
“We came because we want to preserve postal jobs with good benefits and not give them to low-benefit jobs,” said Carol Thomas, a retired Training Technician from New York.
Rosa Greene, a retired Window Clerk, added, “We wanted to show our support for the cause.”
“The APWU will continue do everything we can to ensure that these documents are opened to public view,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “The Postal Service must be accountable to the people of the country. The people have a right to know the plans postal management is considering for the future of this great national public treasure.
“Management should end its dirty deal with Staples and stop efforts to privatize retail operations,” he said. “Our country deserves public postal services that are provided by well-trained USPS employees who are accountable to the people.”
United Students Against Sweatshops Joins Stop Staples Campaign
Members of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) endorsed the Stop Staples campaign at their national conference in Pittsburgh in February, and held a National Day of Action on March 24. Actions were held in nine cities, including New York; Philadelphia; Boston; Austin, TX; Cambridge, MA; Durham, NC; Kent, OH, State College, PA, and Washington, DC.
APWU Stop Staples activists set up an informational table at the group’s February conference, where flyers were distributed and postcards to Staples CEO Ron Sargent were signed. APWU members also participated in a panel on privatization of public services, along with an activist from the Pittsburgh Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, where they discussed how the Stop Staples campaign ties in to the fight to keep the Postal Service as a great public institution. The panel attracted a standing-room only crowd.
USAS drafted a letter to CEO Sargent, informing him that the organization is encouraging members to boycott Staples. The group has also launched an online petition, which can be signed at actionnetwork.org/petitions/take-the-pledge-to-StopStaples.