It was low pay like that, and impossible working conditions to boot, that led the nation’s post office workers, then members of nine unions, to stage their first and only nationwide strike in late March 1970.
 |
| Letter Carriers picket during the 1970 postal strike. |
But the win didn’t come easily, the two union leaders said at a March 20 symposium at the Postal Museum in Washington to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the strike. Indeed, there wasn’t even unanimity within unions at the start of the struggle, Sombrotto admitted. One old-line leader charged the strikers “were incited by the SDS,” referring to the radical Students for a Democratic Society.
“But we really started to take off when the leadership of our branch didn’t show up” at a meeting the workers called, Sombrotto told the standing-room-only crowd, which included several other veterans of the struggle besides Burrus and himself. A non-partisan ballot-counting group ran the strike vote, and the tally was 1,550-1,005 to walk out, he said. Eventually, some 200,000 workers, including clerks and carriers, did.
The ball really started to roll “when leaders of Branch 36, who were meeting across the street” heard about the vote and pledged their support, as did the rest of organized labor. “We’re a labor union. We belong to the AFL-CIO. We won’t cross a picket line. That’s good enough for me,” one other leader said, Sombrotto recalled.
Out in Cleveland, Burrus, a sorting clerk in mid-career – he’d already been toiling for the post office since the early 1950s – was trying to decide whether to leave for another occupation. Then the strike came along, Burrus said.
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“Our members were in front of our leaders, who were nowhere to be found. But we would not return until we were satisfied and our needs and those of our families were met,” he declared.
They were. After nine days of the mail piling up – including vital things like paychecks and bills – the Nixon administration negotiated a settlement with the strikers: A 14% raise, a pension plan, and arbitration to solve future disputes.
“And not one striker was fired,” Burrus pointed out.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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Visit the APWU and NALC
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It was low pay like that, and impossible working conditions to boot, that led the nation’s post office workers, then members of nine unions, to stage their first and only nationwide strike in late March 1970.
|
| Letter Carriers picket during the 1970 postal strike. |
That protest, which began as a walkout in New York City, quickly spread across the U.S., said retired Letter Carriers President Vincent Sombrotto – a leader in the uprising – and current Postal Workers President Bill Burrus. And its success led to wide-ranging changes in the workers’ lives, and even to the creation of the Postal Service as a quasi-independent U.S. agency, with the aim of turning a profit.
But the win didn’t come easily, the two union leaders said at a March 20 symposium at the Postal Museum in Washington to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the strike. Indeed, there wasn’t even unanimity within unions at the start of the struggle, Sombrotto admitted. One old-line leader charged the strikers “were incited by the SDS,” referring to the radical Students for a Democratic Society.
“But we really started to take off when the leadership of our branch didn’t show up” at a meeting the workers called, Sombrotto told the standing-room-only crowd, which included several other veterans of the struggle besides Burrus and himself. A non-partisan ballot-counting group ran the strike vote, and the tally was 1,550-1,005 to walk out, he said. Eventually, some 200,000 workers, including clerks and carriers, did.
The ball really started to roll “when leaders of Branch 36, who were meeting across the street” heard about the vote and pledged their support, as did the rest of organized labor. “We’re a labor union. We belong to the AFL-CIO. We won’t cross a picket line. That’s good enough for me,” one other leader said, Sombrotto recalled.
Out in Cleveland, Burrus, a sorting clerk in mid-career – he’d already been toiling for the post office since the early 1950s – was trying to decide whether to leave for another occupation. Then the strike came along, Burrus said.
online pharmacy buy biaxin online no prescription
“Our members were in front of our leaders, who were nowhere to be found. But we would not return until we were satisfied and our needs and those of our families were met,” he declared.
They were. After nine days of the mail piling up – including vital things like paychecks and bills – the Nixon administration negotiated a settlement with the strikers: A 14% raise, a pension plan, and arbitration to solve future disputes.
“And not one striker was fired,” Burrus pointed out.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
For more information
Visit the APWU and NALC
online pharmacy order desyrel no prescription with best prices today in the USA
websites