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DESCRIPTION:Postal Workers Staples National Day Of Action Against Privatization- Bay 
 Area Protests April 24, 
 2014\nhttp://sflaborcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/04-24-14APWUDay-of-Action-flyer.pdf 
 \n\nwww.stopstaples.com \n\nA national protest against privatization at 
 Staples is being organized with April 24, 2014 protests throughout the 
 country. The APWU president Mark Dimondstein is also calling for a public 
 bank at all post offices in a speech in Chicago.\n\n\nAPWU Pres Mark 
 Dimondstein Calls For Defense Of The People's Post 
 Office\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_06Asbv49fU&feature=\nOn April 4, 
 2014, Mark Dimondstein president of the American Postal Workers Union spoke 
 in Chicago at the Labor Notes convention on how to defend the People's Post 
 Office. He also discussed the union's new effort to establish a public 
 postal bank system for millions of poor and working people who do not have 
 access to the commercial banks.\nFor more information on APWU go to 
 www.apwu.org\nProduction of Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org\n\nUS 
 Postal Police at APWU Stop Staples 
 Demonstration\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnoN4vY_MMs\n21CPW \nUS 
 Postal Police Protecting Staples?\n\nCorrupt Blum-Feinstein Privatization 
 Scheme To Profit  In Sell Off Of US Post 
 Offices\nhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inspector-general-criticizes-usps-relationship-with-real-estate-representative-cbre/2014/02/20/fcaad8c2-9a6f-11e3-b88d-f36c07223d88_story.html\nInspector 
 general criticizes USPS relationship with real estate representative 
 CBRE\n\nBy Lisa Rein, Published: February 20 E-mail the writer\nThe U.S. 
 Postal Service is putting itself at financial risk by allowing an outside 
 real estate firm to negotiate sales and leases of postal property on behalf 
 of the mail agency and prospective buyers and renters at the same time, a 
 watchdog warned this week.\n\nThe practice, called “dual agency 
 representation,” has the potential to create conflicts of interest for 
 CBRE, with the result that the real estate company might not maximize 
 revenue for the financially ailing Postal Service.\n\n“CBRE conflicts of 
 interest could lead to financial loss to the Postal Service and decrease 
 public trust in the Postal Service’s brand,” USPS Inspector General 
 David C. Williams said Wednesday in a “management alert” that strongly 
 recommends that the arrangement be scrapped.\n\nThe Postal Service and the 
 firm have been targeted by critics for the selling off of historic post 
 office buildings, at what preservationists say have been relatively low 
 prices and without adequate public notice or effort to adhere to federal 
 preservation guidelines.\n\nThe chairman of CBRE’s board of directors is 
 Richard C. Blum, who is married to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a fact 
 that has heightened scrutiny of the relationship between the Postal Service 
 and the real estate firm. Wednesday’s report did not address the historic 
 buildings or Blum.\n\nIn the report, the inspector general urged postal 
 officials to switch to arm’s length transactions, in which CBRE would 
 represent only the agency. The change, the report said, would ensure that 
 contract terms do not give too much financial control to buyers or to 
 sellers.\n\n“We do not believe allowing the arrangement is in the Postal 
 Service’s best interest,” Michael A. Magalski, deputy assistant 
 inspector general for support operations, wrote to postal 
 officials.\n\n“When representing the Postal Service, it is important for 
 CBRE to be focused on maximizing revenue when negotiating sales and leases 
 of Postal Service properties and reducing costs when negotiating leases of 
 properties for the Postal Service to occupy,” Magalski wrote. “This 
 focus is compromised when it is also representing the interests of the 
 buyer, lessee, or lessor.”\n\nPostal officials told Magalski that they do 
 not plan to stop the practice of dual representation, arguing that it gives 
 them wider exposure to potential buyers or renters and ensures healthy 
 competition. Such arrangements also are allowed under CBRE’s contract 
 with the General Services Administration, postal officials said.\n\n“The 
 Postal Service appreciates the time and effort that the [Office of 
 Inspector General] invested in preparing the Management Alert, however, it 
 does not agree with the OIG in this instance,” Sue Brennan, a Postal 
 Service spokeswoman, said in a statement. Postal officials believe that 
 “following their recommendation is not in the best interests of the 
 Postal Service.”\n\nShe said the agency “has put in place reporting and 
 consent requirements to minimize any risks associated with conflict of 
 interest.”\n\nBut the inspector general said “no consensus exists as to 
 the benefits associated with a dual agency arrangement.”\n\nIn a 
 statement, CBRE said the company “undertakes to maximize the value of 
 each asset disposition” for the Postal Service, whose properties have 
 “consistently” been sold at or above the appraised value provided by a 
 third party.\n\n“All properties are sold on an arm’s length basis after 
 broad exposure to the market,” the company said.\n\nWednesday’s report 
 is the latest in a string of controversies involving the Postal Service’s 
 contract with CBRE, a $7 billion Fortune 500 company the agency made its 
 exclusive real estate agent in 2011. The Postal Service leases about 24,000 
 post offices and other properties and owns about 9,000 more.\n\nThe company 
 said that Blum, as its “non-executive” chairman, plays no role in 
 day-to-day operations and was unaware of the contract with the Postal 
 Service when it was awarded. His investment firm owns 41 / 2 percent of 
 CBRE’s outstanding shares.\n\nFeinstein’s office has said the senator 
 does not discuss her husband’s business decisions with him — and that 
 Congress has no role in choosing which companies do business with the 
 Postal Service.\n\nWilliams is also conducting a detailed audit of postal 
 real estate transactions handled by CBRE, “given the multiple roles CBRE 
 plays for the Postal Service and within the real estate industry,” the 
 report said.\n\nOpponents of the sales of historic post office buildings 
 got nonbinding language in the recent federal budget that supports blocking 
 further sales until the Office of Inspector General completes its probe of 
 the agency’s process for transferring ownership of its buildings.\n\nThe 
 contract with CBRE requires the firm to notify postal officials of any 
 actual or potential conflicts of interest within five days of a request for 
 or ordering of contract work.\n\nThe company has submitted 10 “dual 
 agency” disclosure letters detailing transactions in which it represented 
 both the Postal Service and potential buyers or renters, the inspector 
 general said. It represented both parties in three of those transactions 
 before the contract with the Postal Service was changed in June 2012 to 
 allow for dual representation.\n\nStaples Protests by APWU Against Postal 
 Privatization Take Off!\nStaples Protests Take 
 Off!\nhttp://www.apwu.org/news/webart/2014/14-019-staples-sanfrancisco.htm\nAPWU 
 Web News Article #019-14, Jan. 28, 2014\n\nKGO-TV coverage\n\nMore than 150 
 APWU members and supporters took part in a lively protest outside a Staples 
 store in San Francisco on Jan. 28, challenging a deal between the company 
 and the U.S. Postal Service that staffs “postal” counters in Staples 
 stores with non-postal employees. The deal threatens good-paying union jobs 
 and jeopardizes public post offices, they said.\n\nThe protesters chanted, 
 held signs saying “Stop Staples: The U.S. Mail is Not for Sale,” and 
 passed out flyers [PDF] about the deal to customers and passersby. 
 \n\n“The U.S. Postal Service is the people’s postal service,” said 
 APWU Western Region Coordinator Omar Gonzalez. “We have to spread the 
 word. We want post offices staffed with public servants who are accountable 
 to the people,” he said.\n\nThe union is demanding that postal employees 
 be assigned to perform the postal work at Staples stores. If Staples and 
 the USPS refuse, the APWU will ask customers to take their business 
 elsewhere.\n\n“The APWU supports the expansion of postal services and 
 retail hours,” APWU President Mark Dimondstein notes. “But we cannot 
 accept USPS plans to replace good-paying union jobs with non-union low-wage 
 jobs held by workers who have no accountability for the safety and security 
 of the mail,” he said. The program is a direct assault on postal jobs and 
 on public postal services, and with 40 percent of APWU members working in 
 retail operations, the threat to postal jobs and to public post offices is 
 real, he said.\n\n\n\n\nThe event garnered considerable press coverage, 
 with local television stations, radio and newspapers reporting on the 
 activities.\n\nAlan Ross of the East Bay Area Local told ABC 7 News in San 
 Francisco, “Our biggest fear, obviously, is that if Staples is successful 
 in staffing those units with their workers, then our opinion is it may lead 
 to the closing of some of the smaller post offices located near Staples 
 centers.”\n\nA protest is also planned for a Staples store in San Jose, 
 and a nationwide day of action at Staples stores around the country will 
 take place soon, APWU President Mark Dimondstein said. Sustained protests 
 will be organized in locations where Staples stores have postal 
 counters.\n\n“We will take this issue far and wide, looking for support 
 among all those who believe in a public Postal Service and in protecting 
 jobs that pay a living wage,” Dimondstein said.\n\nAt the San Francisco 
 protest APWU members were joined by postal customers and representatives of 
 the American Federation of Teachers, American Federal of State, County and 
 Municipal Employees (AFSCME), United Food and Commercial Workers, the 
 National Union of Healthcare Workers and the National Association of Letter 
 Carriers. Several APWU members from Southwest Coastal Area Local attended, 
 along APWU members from in and around San Francisco.\n\nMore than 80 
 Staples stores in California, Pittsburgh, Atlanta and Central Massachusetts 
 are participating in the trial program. If Staples and USPS executives 
 consider the trial successful, the program could be expanded to the 
 chain’s 1,600 other stores.\n\nPostmaster General Patrick Donahoe told 
 the Associated Press that he would like to expand the program “as soon as 
 possible.”\n\n“We intend to stop it,” Dimondstein said. “We believe 
 we can, and we will.”\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/04/12/18753995.php
SUMMARY:Postal Workers Staples Natl Day Of Action Against Privatization - Bay Area Protests
LOCATION:BAY AREA EVENTS:\n\nSAN FRANCISCO\nTime: 10:00 AM\nAddress: 1700 Van Ness 
 Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94109 SAN LEANDRO\nTime: 1:00 PM\nAddress: 15555 
 East 14th Street #200, San Leandro, CA 94578 CAMPBELL\nTime: 3:30 
 PM\nAddress: 500 East Hamilton Avenue, Campbell, CA 95008
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/04/12/18753995.php
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