APWU opposes Staples-Office Depot deal

The American Postal Workers Union, which has been leading the fight against a U.S. Postal Service initiative that places USPS retail counters manned by non-postal employees in Staples office supply stores, said it will “vigorously oppose” Staples' $6 billion acquisition of Office Depot announced this week

“We will urge the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to block this monopolistic and unlawful merger now, just as they did 17 years ago,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “And we call on Congress to weigh in with the FTC and the Department of Justice to stop it."

APWU also said it had obtained documents showing that USPS plans to transfer USPS work to Staples in order to reduce employment and service hours in post offices.

“The transfer of living-wage jobs to low-wage, poverty-level jobs is not in the public interest,” Dimondstein said. "We will vigorously oppose this merger. It’s bad for workers and bad for consumers.”

Since the beginning of last year, APWU and a number of other unions have been staging demonstrations at Staples stores, as well as encouraging a boycott of the stores, as part of a "Stop Staples" campaign against the in-store postal counters.