BOSTON – Members of the American Federation of Teachers union are threatening to buy their school supplies at anywhere but Staples if the office supply chain doesn’t drop its plan to house U.S. Postal Services in 80 stores.

AFT Massachusetts announced yesterday that it’s joining with the American Postal Workers Union to boycott Staples stores in protest of a deal between the office supply chain and USPS to offer postal services. The plan would install post office services in 80 Staples stores staffed with non-unionized employees – which would help USPS cut costs while increasing traffic for Staples, the Boston Globe reports.

The American Postal Workers Union, of course, is steaming mad because the deal likely would result in more post office closings and fewer union members. For labor unions, fewer members equals less dues money and political power.

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So postal union officials are throwing a fit, and doing their best to convince the public that lower paid Staples employees couldn’t possibly provide service equivalent to top-dollar postal workers.

“In a Globe story in May, a Staples executive said that the company did not want to get in the middle of the fight between the post office and its union, but acknowledged the issue could become a problem if more unions backed the postal workers,” the Globe reports. “He said the retailer would continue to evaluate the situation to determine whether the negative backlash is worth the benefits of the partnership.”

That evaluation might soon get a little trickier because the AFT – the nation’s second largest teachers union at 1.6 million members – is expected to launch a national boycott at its convention in Los Angeles later this week. The union is also expected to protest at LA’s Staples Center alongside disgruntled postal workers July 12, according to the news site.

“We have choices on where to buy school supplies. We may need to start shopping elsewhere,” AFT President Rhonda Weingarten told USA Today.

According to the National Retail Federation, total back-to-school and back-to-college spending in 2013 was slightly over $70 billion. Staples took in $6.1 billion during July, August and September last year, USA Today reports.

The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, already passed a resolution at its convention in Denver last week calling for its 3 million members to avoid Staples, Education Week reports.

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The teachers unions’ involvement in the postal union’s crusade against Staples isn’t surprising, as labor unions have a long history of ganging up against corporations to bully them into submission.

The boycott is the same strategy teachers unions use to bully local school board members during contract negotiations in communities across the country every year.

But the union bullying does nothing in this case to serve the interests of AFT members, who should value choices in where they purchase school supplies. The more choices there are available, the lower the cost, which equates to more supplies. The boycott certainly isn’t about education, or public schools.

Teachers union officials are mobilizing their members against Staples for political purposes as a strategic move to help its Big Labor coalition retain power and control. It’s about organized labor’s never-ending war against America’s capitalist system.

Apparently that misguided focus is more important than educating the country’s next generation, a disturbing reality that’s quite evident from the academic performance of students in districts these unions infect.