Postal Workers and Customers Deserve Better

Local union leaders are winning allies for the union’s campaign against a pilot program that placed postal retail centers in more than 80 Staples stores, reports Northeast Region Coordinator John Dirzius.

Jim Bertolone, president of the Rochester Area Local, and Mike Dennehy, director of the Connecticut State APWU, asked their state AFL-CIO federations to send letters to Staples stores to express displeasure with the decision to staff postal counters with non-postal employees.

In letters to Staples management, Mario Cilento, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, and Lori J. Pelletier, executive secretary-treasurer of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, called the Staples retail postal units a disservice to postal workers, Staples customers, and the local economy.

“Any postal service plan with Staples that would privatize middle-class jobs and replace them with low wage jobs…is simply unacceptable.”

While the Staples program is currently limited to four regional areas — Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Central Massachusetts, and California — it could be expanded to all of Staples 1,600 stores nationwide.