Attacks on collective bargaining: Lessons from the metropolitan union of postal clerks 1937-1962

As states across this country review the status of collective bargaining in the public sector, organized labor must consider the very real possibility of the loss of dues check-off and the automatic retention of members.  In the face of these new realities, it might be instructive to examine the experiences of trade unionists who successfully advocated for their members without the benefit of the collective bargaining process.

One of the ways of gaining insight into what might happen in the future is to look to the past, to a time when government unions could not bargain collectively, enforce agency fees, or rely on dues check-off systems.  I examine the history of Local 10 of the National Federation of Post Office Clerks from the mid 1930s through the 1950s, shortly prior to the 1962 introduction of collective bargaining for federal workers.  There was little hiring in the Post Office for a decade, and then in 1937 a substantial number of people were hired.  Because work in the Post Office was a secure job, and because of the high unemployment of the Great Depression, and because hiring was on the basis of test scores on an exam, many of those hired had at least some college education, and in some cases college degrees.  (www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/census/half-century/tables.html).

These new hires became the backbone of the union.  Over the next twenty years they built the union into a significant presence.    The fact that they were prohibited from engaging in collective bargaining until 1962 effectively meant that each and every complaint about working conditions, hours etc. was pursued through direct interactions with managers and supervisors.  As the union leaders of this new cohort increasingly confronted the administration, they developed confidence, new negotiating skills and a sensibility regarding political action.