Posted on 04/04/2014 3:29:48 PM PDT by mdittmar
For Immediate Release April 4, 2014
Media Advisory for Saturday, April 5, Elmwood Park (near Chicago)
Hundreds of Chicago Postal Workers, Joined by Labor and Community Activists, Protest Outsourcing of U.S. Post Office Services to Staples
Message to Staples: Staff Postal Counters with Postal Employees
Members of the American Postal Workers Union from the Chicago area, joined by hundreds of labor and community activists, will protest on Saturday, April 5, in Elmwood Park, against a deal between the U.S. Postal Service and Staples to move mail services into Staples stores.
Who: APWU President Mark Dimondstein, hundreds of APWU members, labor and community activists from the Chicago-area and across the nation
What: Protest against USPS’ outsourcing of services
When: Saturday, April 5, 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Where: Elmwood Park Staples Store - 1850 N Harlem Ave, Elmwood Park, IL 60707
In October, the USPS announced a no-bid, sweetheart deal to open postal counters in more than 80 Staples stores. The Staples postal counters are less secure than public post offices and they are staffed with low-wage Staples employees.
The U.S. Postal Service and Staples plan to expand this “pilot” project to 1,500 Staples locations nationwide, while the USPS eliminates public post offices.
The Elmwood Park protest is the latest in a series of protests by postal workers and supporters against Staples’ program.
“This is a bad deal for consumers, for workers and for the country,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “It makes no sense to transfer critical public services to a private, for-profit company that has closed 159 stores in the past year and recently announced it will close 225 more stores by the end of next year.”
“Instead of using public resources to bail out a struggling company, the USPS should use its unmatched nationwide network of people and facilities to take advantage of new opportunities such as package delivery for e-commerce sales and offering new services — like low-cost basic banking — that meet the needs of American consumers.”
“As a nation, we need to decide what kind of Postal Service we want,” he said. “Are we going to have a vibrant, modern, public mail system, or are we going to let privatizers kill this great institution?”
“If we’re going to have mini-Post Offices in Staples stores, they should be operated by uniformed postal employees, who have taken an oath and are accountable to the American people.”
Postal workers and supporters are planning for a National Day of Action with scores of protests planned for April 24 at Staples stores across the country. For more information, consumers can text “postal” to 91990, or visit StopStaples.com
* * *
The American Postal Workers Union represents 200,000 employees of the United States Postal Service, and is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
A house divided against itself CANNOT stand.
How is it that we get MORONS in the driver’s seat of these places?
The window of our post office is now only open 7:30 - 9:30 AM and 2:15-4:15 PM. Finding a competent worker to work that weird shift has been a chore.
USPS “management” is as bad as the union. I have two friends that worked for the USPS for several years. Both got sick of being threatened with being fired for things like getting bitten by a pet and quit. There are no good guys in this conflict. Too many USPS workers are lazy, too many are incompetent, too many are featherbedding and the same is true of USPS management.
Lenin, after all, held his nation captive before attempting to impose his preferred form of government.
No doubt the Chicago postal workers are envious of the Soviet model.
If the postal employees they want to put in Staples are like the ones I encounter locally, it will be like putting a slow, disinterested rotten apple in the barrel.
600,000 career employees, the Postal Service has the second largest workforce behind Walmart, 85 percent of whom are covered by collective bargaining agreements. That’s driven average compensation for Postal Service workers to $83,000 per year.
Great Britain, Finland, New Zealand and Sweden, for example, have given up on the government-enforced monopoly on mail delivery and have exposed their former monopoly mail providers to competition.
Germany and the Netherlands, meanwhile, have privatized their main postal companies, which have subsequently expanded into foreign markets and diversified their businesses.
And the 27 member nations of the European Union have agreed to end their mail monopolies in the near future....
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/want-better-mail-service-look-abroad
Yes their are,people who do their job.
Let people get an @postoffice.com secure email address, let them set up a profile, and have all their mail delivered there.
Let that site engage in Bill-Pay, MoneyGram, and other transactions. Have it ad-free for an annual fee, and for those who prefer it free, have ads and videos that tailor to them.
Sell their package delivery services to Fed Ex or UPS.
Mail delivery is an anachronism, it is too expensive, and too inconvenient. It's time the USPS get with the times.
>>he Staples postal counters are less secure than public post offices and they are staffed with low-wage Staples employees.<<
As opposed to the over-paid USPS employees who are more than likely to be the cause of security problems.
The Staples employees?
Hmmm... My local ‘post offices’ are in a drug store and a supermarket. Staffed by regular store employees. I frequently mail packages, send registered mail, etc., so I do more than just buy stamps. Plus, living in a diverse college town, we have tons of foreign students sending stuff to the home country.
Strangely, the store employees manage to get the right postage for me and the internationals with no problem. We get our boxes, envelopes, money orders, etc. with a big fat Midwestern smile. Somehow we manage to do quite well without union postal employees.
Interesting. Staples was closing hundreds of stores amid rumors of bankruptcy.
Just had an envelope mailed First Class on March 25, 2014 from San Diego to its destination in Virginia Beach, VA arrive April 2, 2014. Estimated delivery date was March 28, 2014. Room for improvement? Yes.
Staples will make money, as compared to 20 years of being in the red.
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