WHEREAS, U.S. postal workers offer a crucial service by handling our country’s mail while ensuring its security and confidentiality; and
WHEREAS, these unionized workers demonstrate their dedication and competence through extensive training, experience and the oath upon which they swear to uphold the strictest standards of public service; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Postal Service is seeking to outsource this highly sensitive and skilled labor to more than 1,500 stores run by Staples and to hire nonunionized, low-wage employees who lack the credentials and training of unionized, uniformed U.S. postal workers; and
WHEREAS, this outsourcing plan has already been set in motion in 80 Staples stores in four different states; and
WHEREAS, educators and other workers in public schools are, like postal workers, fighting against a rising tide of privatization that is eroding our system of public services, public institutions and the number of decent-paying jobs in the public sector; and
WHEREAS, although the U.S. Postal Service has refused to provide information to the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) about the Staples contract, the APWU has brought to the National Labor Relations Board multiple unfair labor practice charges surrounding the deal, including charges of illegal actions by postal management against employees protesting the Staples deal; and
WHEREAS, New York City educators have historically stood in strong solidarity with other U.S. public workers and against the privatization of crucial public services; therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the United Federation of Teachers, along with the APWU, AFL-CIO and the majority of AFT locals, calls for a boycott of Staples stores, staples.com and Staples Advantage; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the UFT stands with U.S. postal workers in their effort to preserve for our country both decent union jobs and affordable, accountable public services; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the UFT promote the boycott in the UFT newspaper, at meetings and through social media.