Postal Workers Say PowerPoint Proves Privatization Plans

February 9, 2016
By Steven Wishnia and Neal Tepel 

Washington, DC – The American Postal Workers Union says a confidential document revealed during National Labor Relations Board proceedings involving the Staples office-supply chain proves that the U.S. Postal Service plans to privatize most services.

An NLRB administrative law judge on Jan. 20 issued a summary of the document, a Postal Service consultant’s 2012 PowerPoint presentation on “Retail Channel Strategy.” The consultant, the APWU says, recommended that the Postal Service “eliminate the majority of the standard-volume Postal Service locations and migrate that work to retail partners that are not staffed by APWU members.” While the judge said that doesn’t prove that the Postal Service adopted any of those recommendations, the APWU says its deal to run retail counters in Staples stores shows it did. “The USPS claim that the Staples deal is about providing customers with better access is a hoax,” union President Mark Dimondstein said in a message to members Jan. 29. “It is clearly a privatization scheme to transfer postal services—and our work—to the private sector.” Read more