1970 Letter Carriers Strike

Striking Letter Carriers

Every day we receive the mail at our homes or places of business and never think twice about the hard work and history of the men and women working for the postal service. In 1970 25,000 letter carriers went on strike to gain collective bargaining rights and a fair pay scale. The letter carriers strike reminded America of just how critical the postal service is to our daily lives.
 
When John F. Kennedy took office in 1960, he became the most labor-friendly President since Franklin Roosevelt. In 1962, President Kennedy signed an Executive Order which allowed for Labor organizations, such as the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), to represent employees and bargain on behalf of those employees. This Order led to NALC and the Post office Department signing their first national agreement in 1963.

In 1970, Letter Carriers across the nation walked off the job amidst a massive communications breakdown between the NALC and the White House. Nearly a quarter million Letter Carriers went on strike for several weeks until they returned to work in order to reach a new contract agreement. In the end the striking Letter Carriers gained “a 14 percent pay raise, collective bargaining with binding arbitration and a reduction from 21 to eight years for carriers to reach the top step of their grade level.”  As a result of the strike, the postal service was overhauled and a new law created the United States Postal Service. Postal unions were now officially allowed to collectively bargain for wages, hours and working conditions.