Students Target Kaplan to Aid Post Mailers

It makes a big difference when rank-and-file mailers tell their own story of how they are continuing to fight for a fair contract at the Washington Post.

"We've been working without a contract for 20 months, now," utility mailer Joe Duckett told 150 student activists from all over the country, who gathered in Austin, Texas for United Students Against Sweatshops' (USAS) annual planning conference.

"The Post is demanding we work longer hours at reduced pay, and they refuse to give utility mailers any way to way to catch up with journeymen who make twice our wages for the same work. Most utility mailers, who struggle to support their families, are minorities."

The Post has also refused to offer the mailers and helpers, members of CWA Local 14201, any improvements in health benefits, and it wants to scrap their negotiated pension plan in favor of a company-run plan.

Pledging to promote a boycott of Kaplan Education Services, a subsidiary of and a big money maker for the Post, the students donned caps with a logo supporting the campaign and signed cards promising to:

• Call upon the Post to bargain fairly and to remain neutral in organizing campaigns at its factories;
  
  
• Join with students on campuses to make the Post a target of protest;
  
  
• Join with workers, where possible on picket lines and rallies;
  
  
• Write letters to Post advertisers, public officials and legislators; and
  
  
• Write to university and college administrators, asking them to boycott Kaplan products.


USAS has identified 69 undergraduate Kaplan programs on campuses around the country. They will carefully choose targets in locations where both USAS and CWA have the greatest strength.

The student group has used various tactics in helping poorly paid and poorly treated workers over the years. They helped win a contract for CWA members at New Era Cap Company in upstate New York by interviewing workers and publishing a paper branding New Era a "sweatshop employer." In their ongoing campaign against Taco Bell, a subsidiary of Pepsi, they wrapped one of the vendor's campus outlets in red tape to gain the attention of students, faculty and administrators. They have not ruled out using such tactics against Kaplan if necessary.

"USAS is committed to winning equal pay for equal work for all 400 mailers," said National Organizer Jessica Rutter. "Students are excited about mobilizing to put pressure on Kaplan to help them win a fair contract at the Washington Post."