Union Retirees Say No to Staples

A delegation of APWU retirees visited the Staples store in Robinson Township PA to demand that the office supply chain cease operating postal retail units staffed by non-USPS employees.

Members of the APWU Pittsburgh Area Retiree Chapter made the visit on Jan. 20, Martin Luther King’s birthday, they said, because “Rev. King was a staunch supporter of dignified labor at fair wages.”

Replacing professional postal workers with low-wage, non-union Staples workers, the union retirees told the managers, will lead not only to the demise of the Postal Service but to the destruction of thousands more good jobs in communities across in the nation.

A letter the delegation delivered the store’s managers also expressed the chapter’s displeasure with the company’s efforts to privatize postal retail services.

Making the visit were chapter President John Richards, Vice President Joe Anthony, and members Andrew Sabol, Carol Vodarick,(NALC), David Vodarick, Carol's husband, and Charlotte Richards, Pittsburgh Metro Recording Secretary.

More than a dozen of the 80+ pilot sites are located in Pennsylvania. The others are located in California or in or around Atlanta and central Massachusetts. If successful, the program could be expanded to all of Staples 1,600 stores nationwide.