Has the Onion been planting stories in the NYT again?

I thought this was quite amusing:

Six unions representing some of the Foreign Ministry's 9,500 foreign service, civil service and professional staff members are asking the diplomats — from ambassadors on down all around the world — to protest cost-cutting measures by stopping work on Monday. It would be the first time all the ministry's employees walked out at once. How long such a walkout would last has not been made clear.

Apparently, working conditions are Dickensian (or the appropriate Francophone equivalent):

Belt-tightening at the Quai d'Orsay has meant the elimination of jobs, cultural programs and allowances, as well as restrictions on foreign travel and the stingiest of bonuses. Things got so bad at the Foreign Ministry recently that in many offices there was no paper for copying machines and computer printers for three days. Some employees were asked to donate their own paper. And some of the elevators are not working in the elegant 19th-century palace that houses the ministry.

I sense an important human rights struggle here.   Is there any way ordinary Americans can help support the French diplomats in their strike?   Personally, I think the brave men and women of the Quai d'Orsay should stand firm in their demands and refuse to do any work until their demands are met.   (A process that will, hopefully, last several years.)