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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  • UlyssesT
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    21 days ago

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