Postal workers protest privatization a la Staples

Postal workers clad in bright blue shirts shouted “Stop Staples: The U.S. mail is not for sale” in front of the Buckhead Staples store on busy Peachtree Road in Atlanta on April 24. Their noisy and enthusiastic protest was part of a nationwide campaign.

Atlanta is one of the test sites in the government’s effort to privatize post offices by locating them in for-profit office supply stores that employ low-wage Staples workers to handle the mail.

Union members and community and labor supporters joined together to denounce the move to eliminate living wages and benefits from thousands of postal workers, who take an oath to protect the security of customers’ mail.

Atlanta-area members of the American Postal Workers Union have organized dozens of similar demonstrations at Staples stores in a 50-mile or more radius of the city.