US Postal Service Breaks Up with Staples: No More Postal Service at the Store

By Charlene Arsenault (Patch Staff) - January 5, 2017 4:05 pm ET

MIDDLETOWN, RI — While you can still pick up some envelopes of all sizes there, you will no longer be able to mail anything from Staples.

The U.S. Postal Service announced in a letter to the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, on Thursday that the deal between the USPS and Staples has ended. Staples will be removing all signage and will discontinue postal services at the national retailer’s roughly 500 U.S. locations that handle postal services by the first week of March 2017, according to the announcement. In response, APWU said it is calling off the boycott of Staples effective immediately and will notify its many supporters and allies.

"This is a big win for the public as well as the 200,000 members of APWU and the union’s allies who waged a national campaign, 'Stop Staples,' against the office-supply chain and a battle against the USPS over the Postal Service’s partnership with the national office supply retailer," said a press release.

There are Staples stores located in the Wakefield Mall; in North Kingstown, 1007 Ten Road Road; in Middletown, 870 West Main Road; in Smithfield, 371 Putnam Pike; and in Cranston, 4000 Chapel View Blvd.

Three years ago, the union challenged the USPS’ idea to privatize postal retail operations and shift postal services from neighborhood post offices to Staples locations. The union argued that the privatization effort would undermine the public’s right to quality and secure postal services and would represent a shift of good living wage positions to low-wage jobs.

“The public Postal Service is a national treasure that was treated like a cheap trinket by the former Postmaster General,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein in a statement. “First, former Postmaster General Donahoe cut a dirty deal to set up post offices staffed by Staples employees in 82 Staples stores. Then they downgraded the offerings to the ‘Approved Shipper’ status in hopes of ending the protests, but expanded nationally. In each case, the security and the sanctity of the mail, the training of clerks, and proper oversight were tossed out the window. This was bad for the consumer, bad for the USPS brand and an insult to our dedicated members.”

Staples and USPS announced in late 2013 that they would launch a pilot program operating mini post offices in the company’s retail outlets. The initial test markets were the San Francisco Bay Area, Pittsburgh, Atlanta and the Boston suburbs.

Beginning in 2014, the APWU held protests, rallies and other demonstrations outside Staples retail locations and the Staples headquarters with crowds that at times numbered in the thousands, proclaiming “The U.S. Mail is Not For Sale!”

The union organized a national boycott of Staples stores that was joined by other labor groups including the AFL-CIO, The National Association of Letter Carriers, The National Postal Mail Handlers Union, the Service Employees International Union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, the Communication Workers of America, and, perhaps most importantly, the nation’s two largest teachers unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. A significant portion of Staples revenues is generated by the sale of school supplies, said the announcement.

Staples in February of 2015 announced its $5.5 billion merger with Office Depot. APWU became the largest public opponent of the merger. The union released two white papers critical of the Staples/Office Depot proposal and met with the Federal Trade Commission staff examining the merger. The FTC eventually blocked the merger.

“This is a big win,” said Dimondstein in a statement. “Staples is out of the mail business, which they should never have gotten into. Our members take great pride in their training and their responsibilities; they swear an oath; they perform a public service. The quality of service at a Staples store isn’t comparable. The public should have confidence in the mail. Important letters, packages and business correspondences shouldn’t be handled like a ream of blank paper.”

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