Jon and I enjoyed a lovely Saturday afternoon at the National Postal Museum this past weekend.  I knew very, very little about the 1970 postal strike, that began in New York but eventually included over 200,000 postal employees! At one point they had to lock closed some collection boxes because they were full– mail just piled up and it was only a week-long strike!

The program included the perspectives of three men: Vincent R. Sombrotto (president emeritus of the National Association of Letter Carriers and member of Local 36), William Burrus (president of the American Postal Workers Union), and George Gould (former Staff Director of the Subcommittee on Postal Operations and Services).  Although it was nearly 2 hours long, if you’re interested in postal history it’s well worth watching the program when you’ve got the time.

Mr. Burrus brought copies of a scan of the May 1970 The Union Postal Clerk & Postal Transport Journal.  The image depicts President Nixon as he signs P.L. 91 231, legislation that increased postal employee pay and removed the political patronage aspects of the upper postal service management.  Although the strike came after lots of work on the legislative level, the events in March 1970 greatly contributed to the signing of this postal reform legislation.  I feel very lucky to have a copy of the cover (and apologies for the scan here– it’s a scan of a scan ).

By the way, the Postal Museum has a blog and a YouTube channel– why I didn’t know about this months ago I’ve no idea.  Clearly, I’m slow on the uptake.