Postal workers continue hunger strike against proposed delivery cuts

Despite most of Congress leaving town for the holidays, postal workers are continuing a hunger strike protesting legislation to save the United States Postal Service (USPS) through budget cuts.

The hunger strike began Tuesday and is expected to end late Saturday, according to The Washington Post.

Six former and current postal workers, part of a group called Communities and Postal Workers United, are calling the strike “six days starving to save six-day delivery.” Their goal is to stop Congress from reducing postal delivery to five days a week.

“We have to be on guard, to raise awareness and pressure the decision-makers as they wrangle back-room deals,” group spokesman Jamie Partridge, a retired letter carrier from Portland, said in a statement.

The same small, grassroots group staged a hunger strike in June to protest legislation proposed to overhaul the service.

The agency lost $16 billion in fiscal year 2012, and needs to cut around $22.5 billion from its annual budget by 2016.

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One top proposal, to reduce postal delivery days in order to reduce expenses at the cash-strapped USPS, would also cut letter carrier jobs. According to the protesters, as many as 80,000 postal jobs could be lost.

Congress has been unable to pass postal reform measures and the House and the Senate are in recess until after Christmas.

This week, the group targeted President Obama and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) for endorsing legislation that would cut postal delivery to five days a week.

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