Postal Workers Plan Hunger Strike to Save Postal Service

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Saying that “America’s postal service is being starved to death,” a group of postal workers and supporters are planning a hunger strike in Washington D.C. the week of June 25. Community and Postal Workers United — an ad hoc group of frustrated local NALC, NPMHU and APWU members and their supporters — says that “Congress is killing the postal service,” not the internet, private competition, or the recession. “Corporate interests, working through their friends in Congress, want to undermine the USPS, bust the unions, then privatize it.” Among the group’s demands are repealing the “Pre-funding Mandate” that drains billions annually from the USPS budget, refund the pension surplus and suspend the threatened closures of local post offices and mail facilities. Saying “We will not stand by as our beloved postal service is destroyed,” the group plans to “shame Congress and denounce the Postmaster General” as well as “engage in dramatic actions in the halls of Congress and at USPS Headquarters to raise public awareness and turn up the heat on decision makers” during the late June hunger strike. NALC Branch 3825 President Kenneth Lerch is asking unionists and activists to endorse the week of action and to come to a June 28 rally at postal headquarters at L'Enfant Plaza. Lerch says "If we have to raise some hell to save the USPS, then that's what we're going to do." Click here for details on the hunger strike schedule.