The Boycott is Still On!

When the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) voted to join the ‘Don’t Buy Staples’ movement on July 12, it struck fear into the hearts of Staples bosses and USPS management. 

So much so that just two days later Staples and the USPS resorted to trickery to try to derail the boycott. They announced they are terminating the no-bid deal and replacing it with an “approved shipper” program. 

The problem? “It’s a ruse,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “Staples and the USPS are changing the name of the program, without addressing the fundamental concerns of postal workers and postal customers.

Even the Postal Service has publicly acknowledged that the “new” program they are substituting it with is the same as the old Staples program.  See the excerpts from articles in the Chicago Tribune and In These Times:

Chicago Tribune: “In practice, [USPS Spokeswoman Darleen] Reid said, the chain will still offer the same postal service products and services, but will be free to charge higher rates and offer the services of competing shippers, such as FedEx or UPS.”

In These Times: Also, In fact, USPS spokesperson Darleen Reid confirms to In These Times that “the Staples program, as it moves to the Approved Shipper program, will be offering the same exact suite of services that it offered before.”

This attempt at trickery shows that the ‘Don’t Buy Staples’ movement is having an effect. We intend to keep up the pressure until Staples gets out of the mail business. The U.S. Mail Is Not for Sale.