The U.S. postal strike of 1970 was a groundbreaking two-week strike by federal postal workers in March 1970. President Richard Nixon called out the United States armed forces and the National Guard in an attempt to distribute the mail and break the strike.
The strike led directly to passage of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which modernized the postal service and provided for collective bargaining for postal workers.
Contents |
At the time, postal workers were not permitted by law to engage in collective bargaining. Striking postal workers felt wages were very low, benefits poor and working conditions unhealthy and unsafe. The U.S. Post Office Department's management was outdated and, according to workers, haphazard. Informal attempts by workers to obtain higher pay and better working conditions had proven fruitless.
The strike began on March 18, 1970. More than 210,000 United States Post Office Department workers were eventually involved, although initially the strike affected only workers in New York City.
President Nixon appeared on national television and ordered the employees back to work, but his address only stiffened the resolve of the existing strikers and angered workers in another 671 locations in other cities into walking out as well. Workers in other government agencies also announced they would strike if Nixon pursued legal action against the postal employees.
The strike crippled the nation's mail system, disrupting delivery of pension and welfare checks, tax refunds, census forms, and draft notices. Businesses hired planes and trucks to deliver publications and letters.
Nixon spoke to the nation again on March 25 and ordered 24 000 military personnel forces to begin distributing the mail. Operation Graphic Hand had at its peak more than 18 500 military personnel assigned to 17 New York post offices, from regular Army, National Guard, Army Reserve, Air National Guard and Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps Reserve.[1]
Negotiations, in which United States Secretary of Labor William Usery, Jr. played a key role, resolved the postal strike in just two weeks.
Postal unions, Nixon administration officials and Congressional aides not only negotiated a contract which gave the unions most of what they wanted, but which also established a legislative framework which led to the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970.
Prior to 1970, postal workers were under the Civil Service Commission regulation structure. They received the same pay and pay grades as did other Civil Service workers. Many functional entities under the Civil Service Commission are allowed to have unions, but they are considered to be weak unions because, even though they can pursue workers complaints on pay grades, working conditions and the like, they are not allowed the strike technique as it could be disastrous, which it was in the case of the Post Office. After the act, postal unions also won the right to negotiate on wages, benefits and working conditions.
On July 1, 1971, five federal postal unions merged to form the American Postal Workers Union, the largest postal workers union in the world.[2]