By Kris Maher and Drew FitzGerald
PITTSBURGH--A postal-workers union is ramping up a campaign to
try to slow the U.S. Postal Service's partnership with Staples
Inc., including asking unionized teachers to boycott the chain and
buy school supplies elsewhere.
Last fall, Staples began providing postal services under a pilot
program that now includes 82 stores in California, Pennsylvania,
Georgia and Massachusetts. The sites are staffed with Staples
employees.
The American Postal Workers Union, whose members have average
pay of just under $25 an hour, said it fears a broader rollout
would end up transferring more duties to lower-paid Staples
employees, cutting the need for neighborhood post offices and
leading to post-office layoffs. The union represents 200,000 postal
workers, or roughly half the total.
On Thursday, the union plans to hold protests at 56 Staples
stores in 27 states. It also recently asked the nation's biggest
teachers unions to urge their members to purchase school supplies
through other retailers. The California Federation of Teachers,
with 120,000 members, plans to vote on such a resolution on April
28.
Staples spokesman Mark Cautela declined to comment on the
union's criticisms. "Staples continually tests new products and
services to better meet the needs of our customers," he said.
The postal service is seeking a way out of a deepening financial
crisis as more people use email and pay bills online. The agency
had an operating loss of $5 billion for the year ended Sept. 30,
with $61 billion in liabilities, including for retiree health
benefits, compared with about $20 billion in assets. Between 2007
and 2013, total mail volume in the U.S. fell 25%. Still, online
shopping has boosted its package business, which rose 8% last
year.
In the past decade, the postal service has teamed up with many
retailers, from CVS Caremark Corp. to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., to
offer stamps and limited services at a total of 65,000
locations--including boxes with prepaid postage at some stores. But
the partnership with Staples is the first time a retailer has been
allowed to effectively set up a mini post office in-store.
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the goal of the
partnership is to expand access to services--including package
shipping--and won't result in job losses at the nation's 33,000
traditional post offices: "Partnerships like the one we have with
Staples are all about growing our business."
The union, however, argues the agency's primary goals are to
lower costs and privatize services. "The idea that it's not going
to represent a shift of work and eventual closing of post offices
is just wrong," said Mark Dimondstein, its president.
Staples has experimented with other ways to improve store
traffic. It tested a partnership with Amazon.com Inc. that allowed
the online retailer to put shipping lockers in stores, but Staples
scuttled the program last year.
Last month, Staples said it plans to close as many as 225 stores
over the next two years in an effort shrink its physical footprint.
Staples is the nation's second-largest online retailer by sales
behind Amazon, according to trade publication Internet
Retailer.
The postal service said in a December 2012 internal memo that
the purpose of its program to expand services to stores including
Staples was to determine "if lower costs can be realized with
retail partner labor instead of the labor traditionally associated
with retail windows at Post Offices." The memo said an initial
analysis suggested that retailers can sell postal products and
services at less than a third of the cost at post offices.
The union has also criticized the fact that the postal service
will grant Staples discounts on certain products, according to a
copy of the agreement between the retailer and the agency. The
postal service is "providing Staples with a discount so that
Staples can make a profit," Mr. Dimondstein said. "That's very
troubling."
Darleen Reid, a spokeswoman for the postal service, declined to
provide information about discounts to Staples, saying the
agreement, like those with other retailers, is confidential. She
said the program is mainly about expanding market share but that it
"can lower costs for the postal service while simultaneously
increasing customer convenience."
Customers in line Tuesday at a Pittsburgh post office said they
visited the location because it was within walking distance from
work or they had a post-office box there.
At a Staples store a few blocks away, others stepped up to a
counter beneath a white-and-blue United States Post Office sign
next to postal boxes and envelopes. Evelyn Castillo, a 54-year-old
event planner with two boxes and a stack of postcards under her
arm, said the wait was usually shorter at Staples. "It's a
convenience," she said.
Write to Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com and Drew FitzGerald at
andrew.fitzgerald@wsj.com
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