Nearly 1,000 postal workers will be demonstrating Thursday at three Las Vegas retail stores in protest of the use of an offensive phrase in a “pack-and-ship” business’s name.

American Postal Workers Union members who are in the city as delegates to the union’s national convention are appalled that the U.S. Postal Service has entered into an “Approved Shipper Program” partnership with the franchising operation known as Goin’ Postal.

“We’re outraged that the Postal Service has joined forces with this company,” said APWU President William Burrus. “We’ve long fought against the use of the demeaning phrase, as has everyone proud to be associated with the Postal Service. From top to bottom, postal employees are dismayed, and I personally am unable to fathom how management could go partners with franchises capitalizing on the term to sell goods and services.”

Seventeen busloads of APWU delegates will demonstrate in front of three different Goin’ Postal outlets within 20 miles of the Las Vegas hotel where the union’s 19 th biennial convention is being held. The APWU members will wear blue T-shirts mocking the USPS partner’s corporate logo and insisting that the phrase is anything but a joke.

“The word ‘postal’ is part of a brand name that touches the lives of every citizen six days a week,” Burrus said, “so there is immediate recognition of any business or organization that uses the word in its name. In this sense, our reputation is being used as a means to make money. We’re hoping that this demonstration can help postal workers win back our good name.”

The national union had been aware of the package-shipping retail operation, but had not known about its relationship with the Postal Service until earlier this year when APWU members visited a Minneapolis-area store. After identifying themselves to a manager as postal workers offended by the company’s name, they were casually informed that the company has plans to open up as many as 4,000 stores nationwide.

Burrus wrote to Postmaster General John E. Potter on May 30, inquiring about the relationship between the USPS and the 300 Goin’ Postal stores. “The postal community has rejected the use of the phrase ‘going postal,’ which demeans and stigmatizes more than 700,000 dedicated postal employees…I am unable to reconcile our collective disdain for this cruel stereotype with management’s partnership with a company using the same name.”

Potter has yet to respond to the APWU. “His lack of a response sends a clear message of complicity,” Burrus said.