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Bunnies on the move
Nothing had worked for the American Postal Workers in Danbury, Connecticut. Postal authorities
continued to dismiss worker demands for contract compliance. The contract required that workers whose
jobs were eliminated be offered new work within a fifty mile radius. Management claimed that this was not
possible to do.
"Bosses Beware: When We're Screwed We Multiply" read the backs of 300 bright red shirts with an image
of militant bunnies marching arm in arm. The local's logo was emblazoned on the front. Every worker at the
General Mail Facility arrived to work wearing the t-shirt on the day of the Post Master General's visit from
Washington D.C. Mortified, management began to pay attention.
The attention wasn't the welcomed kind. Fuming over their embarrassment, management sent a letter to
all employees prohibiting the wearing of the shirts because they violated the Postal Service's "zero tolerance
for violence" policy. The workers, amused but not deterred, knew they had disoriented the employer. They
contacted the Northland Poster Collective-the group that had design the T-shirt-and ordered 300 more shirts
but this time without the offending text. They also requested other bunny paraphernalia and threatened to
picket national postal officials scheduled to come to town.
Fearing more embarrassment, management reached a settlement with the local, discovering that they
could find local jobs for their workers after all. They also backed down on their T-shirt ban. The replacement
shirts remained in their boxes.
Management had walked right into an untenable position in which they would look ridiculous whether they
accepted the right of workers to wear the shirts or not. The workers were able to come up with creative ways to
follow up that could keep the heat on indefinitely.
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