PALO ALTO -- Members of the American Postal Workers Union will protest a no-bid, sweetheart deal with the United States Postal Service on Monday, June 2, immediately prior to annual meeting of Staples shareholders in Palo Alto, CA.

Who:     Member of the American Postal Workers Union
What:    Protest at Annual Meeting of Staples Shareholders
When:   Monday, June 2, immediately prior to start of 8 a.m. meeting
Where: Garden Court Hotel, 520 Cowper Street, Palo Alto, California

In October, the United States Postal Service announced a no-bid sweetheart deal to open postal counters with limited service in more than 80 Staples stores, including several in the Bay Area.

As Staples shareholders convene in California, the AFL-CIO has endorsed a call for a nationwide boycott of Staples stores.  The California Federation of Teachers, American Federation of Teachers-Michigan and American Federation of Teachers-New Hampshire have also endorsed the boycott.  Teachers are a significant part of Staples’ target market; it is estimated that 1/3 of the company’s sales are from school supplies.

Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe has denied that Staples stores would replace any of the nation’s 33,000 traditional Post Offices, but six months into the program, hours are being curtailed at nearby USPS offices.

“Recent actions by the U.S. Postal Service prove what we’ve been saying all along,” said Mark Dimondstein, President of the American Postal Workers Union.  “This no-bid deal with Staples is part of a long-term plan to reduce and eventually eliminate service at U.S. Post Offices.”

“The U.S. mail is not for sale,” Dimondstein said. “It should be secured by trained, experienced postal workers – not by low-wage workers with little training on how to handle the U.S. Mail.”

In April, thousands of postal workers and community allies protested the outsourcing of postal jobs and the decline of customer service at 56 Staples stores and Post Offices in 27 states across the country.

“Staples is a company with declining sales, with plans to close more than 200 stores by the middle of next year,” Dimondstein said.  “Shareholders need to ask management why they are involved in this kind of controversial deal when they have so many problems to fix in their core business.”

For more information about the APWU campaign to save public postal services, visit StopStaples.com. A copy of the agreement between Staples and the USPS – heavily redacted – is available on the APWU website.