Posted on 06/25/2012 10:33:33 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Ten current and former postal workers launched a more than 3-day hunger strike Monday to protest looming cuts and closures at the U.S. Postal Service.
Drastic? Yes. But organizers say desperate times call for desperate measures.
The hunger strikers want the Postal Service to shelve its July plans to start closing or consolidating 48 mail processing plants. By the end of 2014, when the plan to shrink the postal network is completed, 229 plants will be consolidated or closed and 28,000 jobs will be gone.
They also want Congress to eliminate a mandate that has been a major financial drag on the service -- annual $5.5 billion payments to prefund health care benefits for future retirees. The strikers say say eliminating the mandate would solve the Postal Service's financial problems.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
If they're anything like the SEIU members, they'll be dead in about 3 years.
I guess they’re just trying to put their, ummm, stamp, on a serious issue?
First off, all the rural post offices, which are almost 100% staffed with white employees, are under the special protection of Congress and the President now. USPS is going to be given a subsidy to keep them open.
Urban mail processing centers, which are major employers of African-Americans, will bear the brunt of closures and shutdowns.
No special protections for those guys.
LIke I said, it's interesting that this is happening under Obama.
Republicans should play the race card on this one themselves ~ while blacks are beginning to notice he's not doing anything for them! Here's a situation where he's actually increasing black unemployment.
Pikers.
Make it 3 weeks. Yeah. Then well know theyre serious.
"...more than 3-day hunger strike..."
So, it might be as much as...4 days. They're serious about this...no sacrifice is too much.
The best way to bring a hunger strike to an abrupt end is to park a BBQ near the strikers’ work areas and fire up some fine country ribs. Burn a little hickory as well...
Then bring a plateful inside to the office and yell, “Ribs are up! Dig in, y’all!!”
Useless eaters think not eating is a threat? Personally, I think of it more as a solution.
A true hunger strike involves starving oneself to death, if ones demands are not met
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If I remember correctly, a few years back some IRA prisoners, in the hands of the Brits decided to do a ‘hunger strike’
The Brits said sure, selected a ring leader and -
We will just put you in isolation with an extra guard to make sure no one encourages you to eat against your will.
After one got ‘pulled out’ because he was sick, another vol took his place.
He was succesful in his hunger srrike.
There were no more volunteers and the rest of the prisoners went back to eating.
Now that is stupid, but I do admire a person that sticks to his guns and follows the old, traditional route.
Todays hunger strikes - much like filibusters - are very wimpish when it comes to the ‘oldies but goodies’.
Enough that they cannot figure out that no one really cares that their privileged work lives are coming back to reality — or rather than those that do care are rooting for the cuts and closures.
Drastic? No, it’s funny. What does not eating have to do with delivering mail??? That’s about as ridiculous as those loonies who think riding their bicycles nekkid is going to bring people around to their cause. Makes no sense.
This is pathetic. A three day hunger strike is not a hunger strike. A hunger strike is: do what I want or I’ll kill myself slowly and painfully. That puts civilized men in a pickle. You can let them die and look cruel or force feed them and looke cruel.
Skipping food for three days puts no one in a pickle. Your options are either to not care or to actively make fun of them. The only people who take notice are the news media, which need something to talk about and unthinkingly promote any sort activism, stupid or really really stupid, in furtherance of their side.
“Make it 3 weeks. Yeah. Then well know theyre serious.”
No, food strikes are either to the death or of no worth. Some could die within 3 weeks, but I think the human body is equipped to go up to 40 days or so. Better yet is a thirst strike, which would kill you within a few days, and painfully at that.
Patronizing the post office is a soul harrowing experience. It is as they are designed to make you as sad as possible. The workers are dead-eyed and lethargic as dying slugs. It makes me understand what Kafka was writing about, except that his world is a lot more fun.
Kieran Doherty lasted the longest - 73 days.
The leader was Bobby Sands.
His sister led the campaign to make him a "martyr" and a "hero" - later she helped plan the Omagh atrocity.
Did buggy whip makers go on strike back in the day too?
So they’re saying they want to die?
Thank you for the input.
I appreciate it.
It really is good to have the ‘facts’ to go along with a ‘failing memory’, though my recollection did hit on the gist of it... at the time I was over 40 and in a semi-alcohol induced state, functioning but nonetheless.. <: <:
Thanks again.
I haven't heard about any subsidies. Though the rural post offices will remain open (despite the Postal Service's plan to close thousands of them,) most are being cut to 2 to 6 hours a day and the Postmasters at the affected stations will see their pay drop to $18.50/hour.
Anyone who thinks the Postal Service isn't making a serious effort to downsize is either uninformed or just b*tching for the fun of it.
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