Controversial Staples, U.S. Postal Service Partnership Dissolves

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A controversial deal between the U.S. Postal Service and Staples Inc. has ended, USPS said Thursday in a letter to the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO.

Under the agreement, non-USPS employees could provide U.S. Postal services at select Staples stores. Or, as a union press release put it, they could operate "mini post offices." Initial test markets were the San Francisco Bay Area, Pittsburgh, Atlanta and the Boston suburbs.

Staples, based in Framingham, Massachusetts, will have to take down signs and discontinue the service at its 500 U.S. locations which handled postal services by the beginning of March, APWU said.

The deal dissolved after a judge with the National Labor Relations Board ruled against it following a union challenge that accused USPS of "scheming" to privatize postal retail operations and shifting postal services from neighborhood post offices to Staples locations.

"The union contended that this privatization effort undermined the public’s right to good quality and secure postal services and represented a shift of good living wage positions to low-wage jobs, thereby hurting the well-being of the communities where the union’s members lived," APWU's press release said.

A USPS spokeswoman told Patch in an emailed statement:

A National Labor Relations Board Administrative Law Judge issued an order on November 8, 2016, which requires the Postal Service to discontinue its retail relationship with Staples. The Postal Service intends to comply with that order.

The Staples deal disbands as USPS continues to grapple with billion-dollar losses, rising debt and dipping mail volume tied to the rise of electronic communications and delivery competition.

In addition to boycotting the company and staging protests, the union also positioned itself as a vocal opponent of the ultimately failed merger between Staples and Office Depot. That deal fell apart last spring.

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