Sanders courting postal worker endorsement

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is courting postal workers on the campaign trail.

The surging Democratic presidential candidate met with the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and more than 40 other labor leaders Monday evening.

American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein called Sanders a “champion” of the postal workers.

“Bernie Sanders has been an outspoken champion of postal customers, postal workers and the public Postal Service — demanding expanded services for all Americans, an end to mail delays, and an end to the closure of postal facilities,” Dimondstein said in a statement.

Though the APWU has not yet endorsed any presidential candidate for the 2016 election, the union leader said there is “tremendous interest and excitement” about Sanders.

“There has been tremendous interest and excitement about his campaign in the labor movement,” he said. 

“He has been a forceful advocate for working people for decades,” Dimondstein added. “He’s not in the pocket of big corporations. We thought it was important to hear his ideas about the 2016 campaign — especially how he plans to take on the big-money interests that are strangling our political system and our economy.”

Larry Cohen, the former president of the Communications Workers of America, also attended the meeting.

Sanders’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but pointed to past comments the senator has made defending postal workers.

“It is time for Congress to save the Postal Service, not dismantle it,” Sanders wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal in March 2014 in response to attempts to privatize the postal service.