U.S. postal strike of 1970

U.S. postal strike of 1970
Striking postal workers highlight the disparity in wages between themselves and the politicians
Date	March 18–25, 1970 (approximately)
Location	began in New York City, spread across the United States
Causes	Low wages and poor working conditions
Result	Postal Reorganization Act
Parties to the civil conflict
postal workers labor unions United States federal government
Lead figures
New York City letter carriers NALC president James Rademacher, NALC rank and file strike leader Vincent Sombrotto US president Richard Nixon, Postmaster General Winton M. Blount
Number
approximately 200,000 few few

The U.S. postal strike of 1970 was an eight-day strike by federal postal workers in March 1970. The strike began in New York City and spread to some other cities in the following two weeks. This strike against the federal government, regarded as illegal, was the largest wildcat strike in U.S. history.

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 influenced the contents of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which transformed the post office into the more corporate United States Postal Service and guaranteed collective bargaining rights (though not the right to strike.)

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. APWU president Moe Biller described Manhattan (New York City) post offices as like "dungeons," dirty, stifling, too hot in summer, and too cold in winter.

The U.S. Post Office Department's management was outdated and, according to workers, haphazard. Postal union lobbying of Congress to obtain higher pay and better working conditions had proven fruitless.

An immediate trigger for the strike was a Congressional decision to raise the wages of postal workers by only 4%, at the same time as Congress raised its own pay by 41%.

The post office was home to many black workers, and this population increased as whites left postal work in the 1950s and '60s for better jobs. Postal workers in general were upset about the low wages and poor conditions.

The importance of black workers was amplified by militancy outside the post office. Isaac & Christiansen identify the civil rights movement as a major contributor to the 1970 strike as well as other radical labor actions. They highlight several causal connections, including cultural climate, overlapping personnel, and the simple "demonstration effect," showing that nonviolent civil disobedience could accomplish political change.