October 21, 2014
By Stephanie West
Washington, DC – On Oct. 10th, APWU President Mark Dimondstein called for the resignation of Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, saying he is on “a rampage to cut, cut, cut” and has no plan to save the United States Postal Service. According to Politico on October 10th, 37,400 jobs were lost in 2013 and 169,000 jobs could be eliminated by 2022. The destruction of the United States Postal Service is now continuing at a rapid rate continued Dimondstein.
The replacement of postal clerks earning living-wage jobs with Staples clerks earning poverty wages is a disgrace, said President Dimondstein. The attack on union workers and the elimination of employee benefits continues to be a goal of big business. The fight for fair wages with adequate benefits for workers must continue.
Demonstrations to protest mail services being taken over by Staples is continuing across the country. During the week of October 7th, a Staples store in Center City, Philadelphia, was picketed by members of the American Postal Workers Union, the National Association of Letter Carriers and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union. Several other labor organizations and community groups joined the picketing as part of a national campaign to boycott Staples because of its refusal to stop turning its store counters into quasi-post offices.
