Labor-Community Caravans Head to DC Thursday 6/28 to support Postal Community Hunger Strikers

Contact: Johnnie Stevens, Community-Labor United for Postal Jobs & Services (clupjs.com)
917-402-4755

New York, June 22

Cars, buses and vans of labor and community activists will form a Caravan to Washington, DC, in the early hours of Thursday, June 28, to join a mushrooming national hunger strike to save postal services and jobs.

The nationally organized hunger strike was initiated by Community and Postal Workers United, spearheaded by postal workers in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Denver, Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Jersey and New York. (See CPWUnited.com.)

The caravan will start at 4 am in Newburgh, NY, where hunger striker and Mid-Hudson APWU President Debbie Szeredy will lead a delegation of postal workers and community leaders heading to DC. Debbie will explain the hunger strike and the fight to save the post office.

Next stop will be the James A. Farley General Post Office in New York City, at 8^th Avenue & 33^rd Street. A 6 am support rally and send-off is planned by Community-Labor United for Postal Jobs & Services (CLUPJS.com), with support from the National Conference of Black Trade Unionists, a coalition of public sector unionists from APWU, NALC, AFSCME District Council 37, the Transport Workers Union Local 100, United Federation of Teachers, and SEIU District 1199. Other participants include the South Bronx Community Congress, Parents to Improve School Transportation, and the Chelsea Tenants Council. Some of these groups will have delegations joining the caravan to DC.

A Newark, NJ rally will take place at 7:30 am, hosted by the People’s Organization for Progress (POP), with members of the APWU, Mail Handlers and Letter Carriers.

The caravan will roll into Philadelphia at 9:30, for a rally organized by postal workers, longshore workers, Occupy Philadelphia, and other groups.

The caravan’s last stop before entering Washington will be in Baltimore, at 10:30 am. The Baltimore All-People’s Congress and Occupy4Jobs will hold a press conference and send-off rally, together with community and labor leaders and organizers.

On arrival in Washington, the caravanistas will join a national press conference of Hunger Strikers and their supporters, and help launch two days of protest and civil disobedience aimed at US Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, and his rightwing supporters in Congress.

 

SUPPORT THE JUNE 25-28 HUNGER STRIKE: CONFRONT CONGRESS, USPS AND THE 1%

Hunger Strike Endorsers (Partial List in Formation) Community-Labor United for Postal Jobs & Services Parents to Improve School Transportation (PIST) Communication Workers of America Local 1180 South Bronx Community Congress National Action Network Youth Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (National) Donald Afflick, NYC President, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists Chelsea Coalition on Housing PostKatrinaAwareness.com International Action Center Bikeforthegulf.org Sharon Eolis, International Action Center Johnnie Stevens, Occupation Zip Code, PIST Rosa Maria de la Torre, Organizer, Chelsea Coalition on Housing Rev. Lydia Lebrón-Rivera, Grace United Methodist Church, Harlem *Kendall Jackman, Picture the Homeless Rev. Luís Barrios *Charles Twist, New York Letter Carriers Branch 36, NALC *Frank Couget, Shop Steward, New York Letter Carriers Branch 36, NALC Maximino Rivera, Founder, South Bronx Community Congress *Ed Figueroa, Shop Steward, Schools Division, SEIU-32BJ Julio Muñoz, South Bronx Community Congress Ray Figueroa, South Bronx Community Congress Enrique Colon, South Bronx Community Congress Dee Knight, Labor-Community Forum, South Bronx Community Congress Shahid Comrade, Pakistan Freedom Forum Larry Lippman, Chelsea Coalition on Housing John Dennie, NPMHU 300, New York City, retired Harry Beresford McNeary, Urban Rebuilding Initiative

*Jackie DiSalvo, Occupy Wall Street, Labor Working Group Occupy Philly Labor Working Group Joe Piette, Retired Philadelphia Postal Worker, Branch 157, NALC Andre Powell, AFSCME Delegate, AFL-CIO, Baltimore, MD Sharon Black Occupy4 Jobs / All Peoples Congress,  Baltimore Dave Welsh, NALC 214, San Francisco, past Executive VP Joe Hirsch, National Postal Mail Handlers Local 300, Jersey City, NJ Ethel Tobach, American Museum of Natural History, curator emeritus John Curtis, Retired Letter Carrier, NALC Branch 391, Bangor, Maine, Eddie Oquendo, National Mail Handlers Union Local 343, Charleston, SC Walter Smith, Vice President, National Mail Handlers Union Local 343, Charleston, SC Dante Strobino, Organizer, UE Local 150, North Carolina *Mike Eilenfeldt, Delegate to NYC-Central Labor Council, Union@Cooper Union, NYSUT Sam Stark, UAW, Southeast Michigan Jobs with Justice Mack I. Julion, NALC Branch 11, Chicago IL, President Clint Burelson, APWU 2354, Olympia WA, President Ken Lerch, NALC Branch 3825, Rockville MD, President Jim Cook, NALC 82, Portland OR, President Tom Dodge, APWU 181, Baltimore MD David Yao, APWU 28, Seattle WA, Vice President Bill Schorsch, NALC 825, Oakbrook IL, Vice President Renato Quintero, SEIU 49, Portland OR, Vice President Stephen Lysaght, APWU 47, Walnut Creek CA, President Richard Koritz, NALC 630, Greensboro NC, past President Jamie Partridge, NALC 82, Portland OR, Organizing Committee Greg Margolis, Jobs with Justice, Portland OR, Global Justice Chair   *Organizations listed for identification only