Instead of striking, shave!

According to this Chandigarh Newsline article, Regional Passport Office employees across India are shaving their heads to protest the potential privatization of their jobs.

All the employees of the RPO came out of their office chambers at lunch time and participated in the head-shaving ritual. All the male employees, except those who are Sikhs, got their heads tonsured by a barber in front of the RPO. This kind of protests are being held by employees of all the 27 Passport Offices (POs) and Regional Passport Offices (RPOs) across the country.

It's certainly a lot more creative than picketing, and perhaps it will get them some publicity.

The image of walking into a passport office and finding everyone there shaved bald is an interesting one.

Changing outlooks

From the South Bend Tribune, this story that follows up on an item mentioned back in December.

Back then, Chandra Johnson shaved her head to protest the firing of a colleague at Notre Dame University.

At the time, Johnson said she would remain bald until the football team wins a national championship. Her attitude about that has changed a bit.

Johnson's scalp remains smoothly shaved. She leaves her head bare most of the time, but wears a hat or an African-style turban when outdoors or at official university functions.

"It's unlikely I will grow it back, even if we did win a national championship," she said a few days ago. The act of shaving her head "helps me to understand better what we do in living in a world that fails to see the goodness in all people," she said.

She also likes the fact that being bald saves time. "Wrapping it takes a second," she said.

Shaving as protest (and support)

Saw this story from WANE-TV:

The assistant to Notre Dame's president has shaved her head to protest Tyrone Willingham's firing as football coach.

Chandra Johnson says she'll remain bald until the Irish win a national championship, something that hasn't happened since 1988.

Shaving one's head has often been used as a form of protest. Now that more people shave their head regularly, it doesn't stand out as much as it used to, but since this was a woman shaving her head, I think people will notice and ask her about it.

Johnson's protest is in support of a colleague. Shaving heads is often used as a show of solidarity too. I've read a lot of stories lately about people shaving their heads to support someone with cancer. Like this story:

After chemotherapy treatments, the 7th-grader at Stillwater Junior High School noticed his hair falling out in clumps. Within a day Jake’s good friends, Cody Jansen and Jesse George, came over to shave their heads with him.

Luke Buerkley, a traveling basketball teammate, suggested that all the players shave their heads to show support.

More than 70 people gathered at the Martells’ house Oct. 8 for a Friday night barbecue and impromptu head shaving party, Jake’s dad, Larry Martell said. [...]
About 24 people, adults and kids alike, shaved their heads that night.

People can support organizations this way too.

Jill Saward, 39, who was brutally raped at her Ealing Vicarage home in 1986, will be raising much needed funds for Abused People's Help In Sexual Trauma (APHIST) based in Wolverhampton, by shaving off all her hair at their Christmas fair on Friday, December 10.