Boycott Staples

[Harry Dresden]

I use Office Depot.

I'll use any company or agency that is convenient at the time I need the service.

i think thats the way most people are.....when i was delivering i found most businesses were like that too....

 

[whitehall]

Let me get this straight, the radical left want's to boycott Staples where good people offer good service because we need higher priced goods offered by lazy union workers?

 

[hortysir]

Post Office Piles on Shift to Low-wage Economy With Staples Deal

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) has just come out with its latest report on the wage levels of jobs added as the nation has emerged from the Great Recession. As with NELP's previous reports, which continue to garner national attention, the news was pretty simple: we're only adding low wage jobs. Some 1.85 million more low-wage workers -- defined by under $13.33 an hour -- are employed by low-wage industries now then in 2008. About the same number, 1.93 million workers -- fewer workers are now employed in mid-wage and higher-wage industries.

The U.S. Postal Service has historically been one of those higher-wage industries, with average pay just under $25 an hour. For generations, postal jobs have been a ticket to the middle class, including as one of the few employers who hired African-Americans at good wages earlier in the 20th century. But the post office is accelerating a new strategy to increase sales and shed labor costs by opening up mini-post offices at Staples stores.

Staples is one of those low-wage employers, with Staples workers reporting that retail clerks average around $8.50 an hour. After piloting the mini-post offices in 82 Staples stores, the post office announced it would expand the program, prompting the American Postal Workers Union to organize more than 50 protest rallies outside Staples stores around the country.

Of course, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said that no postal jobs would be lost because of the Staples program and that the motivation was "growing our business." But the same Wall Street Journal article with Donohoe's statement revealed the real motivation. It quoted an internal postal service memo, which said that the Staples pilot program was to determine "if lower costs can be realized with retail partner labor instead of the labor traditionally associated with retail window at Post Offices." Oops!

Post Office Piles on Shift to Low-wage Economy With Staples Deal*|*Richard Kirsch

It's time for Donahoe to go.

More destruction of the middle class and not a peep.

boycot, shmoycot

The USPS works at a multi-billion dollar loss every year

YEA!!!! Let's follow their lead.


Go fill out an application somewhere else, then

 

[Sallow]

From your article:

Not staples, the Post office is behind this. It was the post office who authorized the program. The Unions are upset at the wrong people.

This has been happening since stores are allowed to sell stamps anything from a convenient stores to groceries. Many business are allowed to send and accept mail for the post office. You do know UPS accepts USPS mail and charges an arm and a leg, far over the USPS prices, don't you?

Donahoe and Issa. Do you know who they are?

I do. Donahoe is the Post Master General appointed by Obama to fix the mess the post office is in. He has tried various ways such as closing the PO for one day a week to cut down on costs and was attacked by democrats in congress. Issa supported the idea.

He suggested it and it was shot down and never implemented. He felt it would cut on costs for an organization so far in debt they can't pay their pensions due to a congressional mandate which states pensions need to be prefunded. They have to borrow billions and billions from the US Treasury.

All of which was happening far before Donahoe took office in 2010. The loss of jobs and mail is a result of email and other entities which deliver mail and packages, they may be more expensive but more efficient than USPS.

Under Donahue in 2013, the post office had their first growth in revenue since the year 2006, even though still operating in the red, he must be doing something right considering the drop in mail flowing through the post office.

Well no it isn't.

It's the result of this:

The financial woes of the U.S. Postal System have become a point of contention on Capitol Hill. The Postal Service is supposed to make a $5.5 billion payment to its retiree health care fund by November 18th... but doesn't have the money.



US Postal Service workers have a retiree health care benefit in addition to their pension. Before Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, the USPS operated under a pay-as-you-go model for retiree health care funding. The new law requires the Postal Service to pre-fund its benefit obligations.
The Truth About The Post Office's Financial Mess

This pre funding forces the USPS to do something no other private or government agency has to do.

Additionally, the USPS has no control how it prices it services.

It's a ridiculous and crazy situation.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Because it's continued destruction of the middle class.

From your article:

the post office announced it would expand the program,

Not staples, the Post office is behind this. It was the post office who authorized the program. The Unions are upset at the wrong people.

This has been happening since stores are allowed to sell stamps anything from a convenient stores to groceries. Many business are allowed to send and accept mail for the post office. You do know UPS accepts USPS mail and charges an arm and a leg, far over the USPS prices, don't you?

they have a mutual exchange program with each other and if they accept a USPS package they cant charge anymore than what has already been paid....they do the same with Fed-X.....the PO delivers a hell of a lot of their Packages in the Residential areas....but they scratch each others back and all 3 make out....

 

[percysunshine]

Donahoe and Issa. Do you know who they are?

I do. Donahoe is the Post Master General appointed by Obama to fix the mess the post office is in. He has tried various ways such as closing the PO for one day a week to cut down on costs and was attacked by democrats in congress. Issa supported the idea.

He suggested it and it was shot down and never implemented. He felt it would cut on costs for an organization so far in debt they can't pay their pensions due to a congressional mandate which states pensions need to be prefunded. They have to borrow billions and billions from the US Treasury.

All of which was happening far before Donahoe took office in 2010. The loss of jobs and mail is a result of email and other entities which deliver mail and packages, they may be more expensive but more efficient than USPS.

Under Donahue in 2013, the post office had their first growth in revenue since the year 2006, even though still operating in the red, he must be doing something right considering the drop in mail flowing through the post office.

Well no it isn't.

It's the result of this:

The financial woes of the U.S. Postal System have become a point of contention on Capitol Hill. The Postal Service is supposed to make a $5.5 billion payment to its retiree health care fund by November 18th... but doesn't have the money.



US Postal Service workers have a retiree health care benefit in addition to their pension. Before Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, the USPS operated under a pay-as-you-go model for retiree health care funding. The new law requires the Postal Service to pre-fund its benefit obligations.
The Truth About The Post Office's Financial Mess

This pre funding forces the USPS to do something no other private or government agency has to do.

Additionally, the USPS has no control how it prices it services.

It's a ridiculous and crazy situation.

Slowly but surely, Sallow is turning into a free market capitalist.

.

 

[percysunshine]

btw...'Boycott' is kind of sexist. Why are there no 'Girlcotts' ?????

Does not seem fair at all.

.

 

[Disir]

From your article:

Not staples, the Post office is behind this. It was the post office who authorized the program. The Unions are upset at the wrong people.

This has been happening since stores are allowed to sell stamps anything from a convenient stores to groceries. Many business are allowed to send and accept mail for the post office. You do know UPS accepts USPS mail and charges an arm and a leg, far over the USPS prices, don't you?

Donahoe and Issa. Do you know who they are?

I do. Donahoe is the Post Master General appointed by Obama to fix the mess the post office is in. He has tried various ways such as closing the PO for one day a week to cut down on costs and was attacked by democrats in congress. Issa supported the idea.

He suggested it and it was shot down and never implemented. He felt it would cut on costs for an organization so far in debt they can't pay their pensions due to a congressional mandate which states pensions need to be prefunded. They have to borrow billions and billions from the US Treasury.

All of which was happening far before Donahoe took office in 2010. The loss of jobs and mail is a result of email and other entities which deliver mail and packages, they may be more expensive but more efficient than USPS.

Under Donahue in 2013, the post office had their first growth in revenue since the year 2006, even though still operating in the red, he must be doing something right considering the drop in mail flowing through the post office.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/109/hr6407

Under the above, the Post Office was required to pay 75 years in advance all health benefits and retirement. By 2016.

Manufactured crisis.

On top of this was the 40 year old accounting error. The federal Office of Personnel Management has overcharged the post office by as much as $80 billion for payments into the Civil Service Retirement System.

The rise of the Donahoe

Postmaster General: Postal Service 'On Brink of 5.5 Billion Payment Default' - The Five Towns - Far Rockaway - Jewish Community News Service - 5 Times More Value - TheFiveTowns.Info

Issa calls it a scandal and is totally shocked and demands cuts.
Postal Service prodded -- once again -- to do more with less - Oversight - GovExec.com

All of these scandals are nothing more than bread and circuses. Almost forgot, I don't think the PO has used tax dollars since the 1970s.

 

[Not2BSubjugated]

This entire thread has been a set of straw men from the get go.

First off, the USPS was put in place to provide a service, that being the dissemination of written correspondence and parcels. What was -not- one of the purposes of the USPS was to provide high-paying jobs to the middle class. The post office is there to provide its service, it is not a federal jobs program. Even if you sign off on federal jobs programs for economic reasons, it is undeniable that there is an extensive list of more pressing concerns that could be solved by such programs. Infrastructural upkeep, anyone?

The USPS's primary problem is the internet. The sad fact of the matter is that, unless someone is sending an object out, there is very little reason to spend money on a physical mail carrier. Forty nine cents for a letter might not, in and of itself, be cost prohibitive, but when I can send the same letter online for zero cents, that forty nine is -still- a high enough price to drive business elsewhere. It's not about costing a lot, it's about costing more than the alternative. In this regard, the USPS qualifies, and that forty nine cents is therefore, indeed, cost prohibitive.

If less mail needs to be carried, then less physical mail carriers are necessary. This gives the USPS three conceivable choices: continue to pay out the same amount to the same number of people and simply charge more to the taxpayers to make up the difference, lessen the amount they pay out per carrier and keep the same number of carriers on, or get rid of the excess number of carriers. This Staples move appears to be an option B sorta solution, but it's a bullshit example and the reason this whole thing has been a set of straw men.

If it was truly all about cutting costs, USPS wouldn't have gone to a third party for employees. Why? It simply adds another layer of costs.

Even if they decided to partner up with Staples to put USPS kiosks or counters into Staples locations so they could, via convenience, compete more effectively against the private mail carriers, that would require paying less out to staples. They would only pay for the space.

When the USPS decides to pay Staples for access to their employees, that's where they're adding in extra layers of pay. Staples, like any business, looks to make a profit on every transaction. If Staples is paying their workers 8.50 an hour, they're charging USPS in excess of that per man hour and pocketing the profit. This layer is largely unnecessary. If the USPS manned their own shit with 8.50 an hour workers, they'd only pay that much out themselves.

The problem that exists here is largely union related. If USPS manned their own shit, they'd have to do so with union employees and couldn't pay them 8.50 an hour.

Let's get the straw men out of the picture and lay this out as it is:

The USPS, due to advances in technology as it relates to information dissemination, has become far less necessary than it was and, thus, commands far less money than it once did. In order to maintain the old accepted levels of economic self sufficiency, its operating costs, including labor, must necessarily be downsized.

In terms of balancing out the financial input as it relates to labor, the dynamic with the postal workers union makes it quite difficult, maybe impossible, to do so within the parameters of workers directly employed by USPS.

Therefore, if they find the need to pay employees less than union mandated minimums, they have to use third party employees. Companies providing said employees profit off of those employees, so USPS ends up paying more out than those employees are getting paid, and the mega corporation providing them gets to pocket taxpayer money.

So, everyone give yourselves a hand, especially you altruists who treated USPS like a jobs program and promoted shoving tax payer funding into it to make sure those people keep pulling paychecks that represent significantly more than their combined livelihoods actually command. You, like Donahoe, are complicit in this result. If the post office didn't have to figure out how to remain sustainable without rocking the union canoe, mega corporations like Staples wouldn't be able to use the USPS to skim profits directly out of the general fund.

 

[Harry Dresden]

The U.S. Dinosaur,err.........I mean Post Office, is lucky to even still be in business at this point.

If it were not for junk mail, otherwise known as third class mail, the U.S. Post Office would be long gone.

it helps but thats not true....the PO makes a lot of money....and it aint all from 3rd Class....

 

[Disir]

Sorry, Sallow, I didn't see your comments. That's what I get for getting up and walking around.

 

[Harry Dresden]

I didn't realize that I hadn't put it in the OP. Fixed.
Post Office Piles on Shift to Low-wage Economy With Staples Deal*|*Richard Kirsch

Well I see I was right about the reputability of the source, but that aside I think you should be calling for a boycott of the post office, they are the ones that presented Staples with the business opportunity.

Issa and Donahoe. My source is fine. That poor little Staples. They had zero interest in the whole durn thing. It was just foisted on 'em.

i dont think Issa has anything to do with it.....

 

[Harry Dresden]

Post Office Piles on Shift to Low-wage Economy With Staples Deal


Post Office Piles on Shift to Low-wage Economy With Staples Deal*|*Richard Kirsch

It's time for Donahoe to go.

More destruction of the middle class and not a peep.

they are protesting at the wrong place....they should protesting outside Donahoes office....but Donahoe is the worst PMG maybe ever....every PMG has said Merry Christmas to the rank and file every year....except this guy....very impersonal....and does not come off as being very bright....and is one of the most disliked PMG's.....does not have the respect of the workers.....

Like I said, poor Staples. It was foisted on 'em. Donahoe, like Issa, is pure evil.

why would staples turn that down?...just like why did not Fed-X and UPS turn down their Postal deals....its called money.....and the PO makes out too because Staples will use them as their primary shipper....

 

[Steinlight]

Because it's continued destruction of the middle class.

If you work at Staples, I hate to break it to you, you aren't middle class.

 

[Not2BSubjugated]

they are protesting at the wrong place....they should protesting outside Donahoes office....but Donahoe is the worst PMG maybe ever....every PMG has said Merry Christmas to the rank and file every year....except this guy....very impersonal....and does not come off as being very bright....and is one of the most disliked PMG's.....does not have the respect of the workers.....

Like I said, poor Staples. It was foisted on 'em. Donahoe, like Issa, is pure evil.

why would staples turn that down?...just like why did not Fed-X and UPS turn down their Postal deals....its called money.....and the PO makes out too because Staples will use them as their primary shipper....

Then again, if anybody's under the impression that Staples isn't shooting Donahoe some sorta under the table kickback for using -their- stores and -their- employees and giving -them- those added profits, then you're not cynical enough to be consistent with a realistic world view.

 

[Disir]

Because it's continued destruction of the middle class.

If you work at Staples, I hate to break it to you, you aren't middle class.

 

[Steinlight]

Hiking minimum wage into the teens isn't going to give you a middle class, it will just give you automated cashiers.

 

[Disir]

Well I see I was right about the reputability of the source, but that aside I think you should be calling for a boycott of the post office, they are the ones that presented Staples with the business opportunity.

Issa and Donahoe. My source is fine. That poor little Staples. They had zero interest in the whole durn thing. It was just foisted on 'em.

i dont think Issa has anything to do with it.....

How does Darrell Issa Benefit from the privatization of the United States Post Office (Special updates 2014)

 

[OKTexas]

I didn't realize that I hadn't put it in the OP. Fixed.
Post Office Piles on Shift to Low-wage Economy With Staples Deal*|*Richard Kirsch

Well I see I was right about the reputability of the source, but that aside I think you should be calling for a boycott of the post office, they are the ones that presented Staples with the business opportunity.

Issa and Donahoe. My source is fine. That poor little Staples. They had zero interest in the whole durn thing. It was just foisted on 'em.

No dummy Staples is there as a for profit business. If the post office offers them a way to do that then the Staples board would be negligent in not taking the opportunity.

 

[Disir]

Well I see I was right about the reputability of the source, but that aside I think you should be calling for a boycott of the post office, they are the ones that presented Staples with the business opportunity.

Issa and Donahoe. My source is fine. That poor little Staples. They had zero interest in the whole durn thing. It was just foisted on 'em.

No dummy Staples is there as a for profit business. If the post office offers them a way to do that then the Staples board would be negligent in not taking the opportunity.

You need to follow the legislation and the money behind it. It's intentional.