On this day in 1978, thousands of New Jersey postal workers walked off the job after their work contract expired to protest mandatory overtime, forced speedup, lack of support from union leadership, and unsafe working conditions. The strike eventually grew to including nearly 5,000 postal workers nationwide, becoming the largest strike of U.S. federal employees between 1970 and 1981.

The previous contract, which set the terms of employment for U.S. postal workers, had just expired at midnight on July 20th. Postal management, the national union leadership, and the Carter Administration, had created a new collective agreement which ignored most rank and file postal workers' concerns.

In Jersey City, New Jersey, workers at the Bulk and Foreign Mail Center formed the Good Contract Committee (GCC) to organize a set of demands for the new contract that reflected the interests of the working class. These activists launched a newspaper called P.O.W. (Post Office Worker) and distributed 75,000 leaflets at local postal facilities.

The Bulk Jersey City wildcat strike lasted for four days in an attempt to nullify the tentative national contract agreement. It shut down the NJ plant as well as another bulk center in Richmond, California.

After the strike was broken, 125 workers were fired, 130 were temporarily suspended, 2,500 received letters of warning, and leaders of the walkout were blacklisted. The union did not ratify the proposed work contract, and an arbitrated contract settlement was imposed.

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  • vertexarray [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    some years ago my mom's doctor told her that her blood pressure was too low and her ankles were weak, so she should consider eating more salt and wearing high heels. Hoping that if I go to a doctor they'll tell me to take more psychedelics and wear bigger hats

    • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I've never heard of medical advice including wearing higher heels, at least the increased sodium can actually increase your blood pressure. If someone was hypovolemic from being dehydrated and had a low blood pressure from that, they should probably drink more water first lol. But increasing salt intake is a thing, I'd be worried if she had an infection or tamponade or something, I dunno I ain't a doctor.

      • vertexarray [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        me either, plus this was the version I got from her, so it could have been a joke

    • Sandinband [any, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      My doctor told me to eat more salt but I keep forgetting until I overdo it for a few days by eating salty snacks and then forget again for months

      totally unrelated to my problems with regulating my body temperature