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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  • ElChapoDeChapo [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Holy fucking shit, my dog and I just almost died because of our own stupidity but I saved our lives

    My dog was barking so I decided to step outside (huge mistake) with him to see what he's barking at like a fucking idiot

    So I'm looking around for a dog or something when I see 3 bears and I'm like "Oh shit, get back inside!" So of course he jumps off the porch and runs straight at the biggest bear like a fucking idiot

    The bear immediately bites him on the back (miraculously he's ok, the bear mostly bit his long hair and only nicked the skin) and I'm screaming, my pup retreats but the bear pursued

    Now I'm raising my arms over my head and yelling as loud as I can at the bear which worked and got the bear to retreat but my dog is still a fucking idiot so he tried to keep going after the bear until I stopped him

    Thankfully we're both ok and he seemed unfazed even before I gave him the bit of first aid he needed and a bunch of treats he deserved

    He may be the luckiest, bravest and stupidest dog alive and I love him

    • Leper_Messiah [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Shit that's scary, your dog is a badass lol. What kind of bears were they?

    • Mindfury [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      holy fucking shit, that's wild. glad you're both OK

      real :bear-despair: :swole-doge: hours

    • Lilith [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I am so glad you and your dog are okay, give him extra pats for me please