Union Campaign Against ‘Going Postal’ Stereotype Greeted with Silence by USPS
APWU discovers a partner in USPS Shipper Program is named ‘Goin’ Postal
APWU News
When the APWU objected to an E! Entertainment Television series titled Going Postal: 15 Shocking Acts of Violence last month, APWU President William Burrus expected support from the Postal Service, he said recently.
“The title of the series is an affront to more than 700,000 hard-working postal employees who are stigmatized by the cruel stereotype that suggests that postal workers are violent sociopaths,” Burrus noted in a May 13 letter to Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast [PDF], which owns E! “Of course, statistics show that postal employees are no more likely to engage in acts of violence than the public at large.”
But after Burrus sent a copy of his letter to Postmaster General John E. Potter, he was puzzled by management’s reaction: Silence.
“Frankly, I was surprised,” said Burrus. “In December 2003, when FOX-TV broadcast a promotional comedy skit that mocked postal workers and portrayed them as violent, USPS management took the initiative to protest and asked postal unions to join their effort,” he noted. The Postal Service withdrew $200,000 of holiday advertising from FOX and instead ran commercials on NBC, he said.
But perhaps the Postal Service’s recent reaction isn’t so surprising after all.
The union has learned that the Postal Service has designated a franchise business called — you guessed it — Goin’ Postal as a partner in the USPS Approved Shipper Program. The national union learned about the partnership from local editors Mike Mazurkiewicz, (Saint Paul’s Postmark) and Cathy Hanson (Minneapolis’ Northern Light), who ventured into a Goin’ Postal outlet in their area. When they identified themselves to a manager as postal workers offended by the company’s name, they were informed that the company plans to open 4,000 stores nationwide.
Burrus has written to the Postmaster General [PDF] inquiring about the relationship between the USPS and Goin’ Postal. “The postal community has rejected the use of the phrase ‘going postal,’ which demeans and stigmatizes more than 700,000 dedicated postal employees,” he wrote on May 30. “I am unable to reconcile our collective disdain for this cruel stereotype with management’s partnership with a company using the same name.
“I would be pleased to be informed of the rationale.”
He has also written to the CEO of Goin’ Postal [PDF], expressing the union’s objections and informing him that the APWU plans to take all appropriate legal steps to inform the American public that the term does not reflect postal workers or the services we perform.
William Young, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, has joined the APWU’s efforts, writing to the president of E! Networks to object to the series’ title, as have numerous APWU members.
Neither Comcast nor E! has replied to Burrus’ letters.
June 12th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Pretty soon everybody will be “goin’ postal.”
USPS mgmt is a bunch of crony nepo “behenne chods.” (an Indian term)
The USPS hierarchy is dysfunctional and rarely ever held accountable for their poor judgement and waste of funds.
June 16th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Notice please that employee pictures on the Goin’ postal website show employees posing with USPS tubs which the postal service is supposedly trying to get back in the USPS system. Goin’ postal must be exempt from the restriction on using USPS tubs in their business.
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:55 am
What’s the problem here?
Management is “selling out” another principal for a buck?
That’s just standard Postal Executive SOP.
Why does the Post Office run the retail counters understaffed which causes our customers who pay the highest rates to wait long periods of time to do retail business with us?
Is the top Postal management completely incompetent or do they have an ulterior motive like forcing the public to accept or even demand privatization?
June 24th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
There is a strong differentiation between the use of the name Goin’ Postal for the franchise store and the use of the coined phrase goin’ postal which has a specific negative connotation. The USPS is not supporting the negative connotation of the phrasing. This franchise is very specific in it’s positive goals in the community. As well as, underneath the header, the term “and Goin’Green” further defines the prior usage of the name of the franchise ,Goin’ Postal, as benign and specific to it’s reference of shipping services and it’s very positive partnership with the USPS.
The use of wordage is very specifc here. It is important to note that while the words are exactly the same, the words themselves are not negative nor is the paticular usage or grouping of the words together. It is the connotation and the usage of the grouping that gives it the meaning. The USPS is not guilty of misusing that grouping nor did they in any way misalign themselves with a partner that is specifically espousing a negative connotation that is detrimental or in any way bad business for the USPS. On the contrary, the name of the franchise Goin’ Postal brings to the mind the meaning ” going with the post office” for services or goods. Again, the inherent meaning is clearly explicated by the subsequent phrasing just underneath the title on the website as “goin green” for the community.
I understand the need for swift and strong distancing by the USPS and APWU from negative connotations that discredit and disparage hardworking postal employees like ourselves, however this time the USPS has not contributed to that.
My concern is why they are partnering with a retail franchise that further delinates more work and potential wages from the postal workers who are capable and available to do the work. I recognize that it is better for the USPS to partner with these shipping franchises and reap some potential profits as opposed to not doing so and inadvertently creating a gaping unattended hole for burgeoning competition. YEt,how long and how many partnerships can the USPS have before they must allow for freemarket enterprise to usurp those opportunities in the competitive market?
August 29th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
You will see people goin’ postal allright!! Mgmt. uses all of us, then drops us like a hot potato if we see anything wrong. Pretty soon Postal mgmt. will be used as a study in the most horrible company ever run. This Postal Service is being rundown, and will be spit out like an old plug of chewing tobacco. I used to be proud of this place, and was a die-hard advocate of the sanctity of the mail. Now I am convinced that all that our poor excuses of managemment personnel in P.O. headquarters are doing everything to make this two hundred year old institution die a horrible death. Get out while and if you can!!
November 11th, 2008 at 10:57 am
I am a writer in Los Angeles who is currently writing a detective story about a letter carrier. The story does not have as much to do with the USPS itself than it does with the main character, who is a dedicated, hard-working veteran of the postal service. I would like to get in touch with some postal workers (carriers, managers, sorters, etc.) who would be open and interested in answering some non-intrusive and general questions about day-to-day duties for the mere purpose of verisimilitude. If anyone is interested please contact me at smt323@yahoo.com. Thank you.