Our Greatest Strength: Collective Action

(This article first appeared in the November-December 2016 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

One of the most important questions we face as a union is how to get management to honor the contract. Often it seems management disrespects workers, the contract, and the union.

Part of the problem is that many of us believe a myth: that we have assigned roles as passive employees instead of active, involved union members and citizens with as much right to define this country as anyone else.

Too many of us believe that simply paying union dues – the way we pay for health insurance or other services – is all we need to do to protect the rights and benefits we enjoy.

But a union is not a bank, a social club, an insurance company, or a legal service. A union is workers banding together to negotiate better wages, job security, and working conditions than we could win as individuals. Rich, powerful people organize corporations and employer associations to advance their interests; working class people organize unions.

Moreover, too many of us think that “collective bargaining” means a few management representatives and a few union representatives haggling over our pay and benefits. The true meaning of collective bargaining is workers organizing and fighting for our rights together rather than as individuals. The strength of the union at the bargaining table reflects the strength of the union on the workroom floor and in the streets.

The union’s power does not reside solely in our negotiating team, no matter how intelligent or charismatic they may be. The union’s power lives in the thousands of union members in post offices across the country. Along with our families, friends and allies, we have the ability to engage in collective action, such as informational pickets and other activities, that can force the Postal Service to concede much more than if we bargained individually or remained passive observers of our fate.

Unions: Good for the Economy

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935, which remain in effect today, recognized the importance of working-class people organizing to match the power of their employers. It says:

“The inequality of bargaining power between employees who do not possess full freedom of association or actual liberty of contract and employers who are organized in the corporate or other forms of ownership association substantially burdens and affects the flow of commerce...by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners.”

The NLRA goes on to state that it is the policy of the United States to encourage collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is how unions were formed and why many Americans achieved middle-class incomes.

The history of working-class success in organizing is not usually taught in our schools and it is purposefully forgotten by the corporate-owned media. They know that knowledge of the past could lead to more uprisings now and in the future. Obscuring the lessons of history is one way 1% of the population keeps the 99% down and accepting a passive role, where the only engagement in civic life is paying dues and taxes, and voting every few years.

Progress by Collective Action

As postal workers, we have a history of engaging in collective action – with significant results. It was the power of postal workers expressed though the Great Postal Strike of 1970 that gave the union the leverage needed to negotiate the wages and working conditions we enjoy today. Prior to the strike, wages and benefits were so bad that career postal workers in some parts of the country qualified for food stamps and other government support.

Our collective actions against Staples have discouraged other large corporations from taking postal work away from us. In addition, many locals have protested the consolidation of their facilities. The protests did not stop all the consolidations, but they helped the public understand the link between plant closings and delayed mail, and they ultimately contributed to the moratorium on consolidations.

Other locals took on long lines at the window or insisted on two people staffing the DBCS machines or fought hostile management. Their collective actions often included media attention, which gave the local union and national union much more power in addressing the issues.

All the gains of the labor movement have been made through collective action. And although this progress almost always involved struggle and sacrifice, many workers relished the fight. Something magical happens when people assert their rights. It is empowering to engage as active citizens, to demand a say in the wages and conditions of our work. It is empowering to know that because of our actions, future generations will have a better life.

Power is in Our Hands

If one or two people engage in the actions, management will retaliate; but the more people that participate, the less retaliation, and the more leverage earned for workers.

The power to change the Postal Service is in our hands. If we organize, we can have a better place to work and a better Postal Service for the country. Importantly, 100 percent participation is not needed to win a better life at the Post Office. Participation by just 10 percent of workers could force the Postal Service to give respect and concessions to the union.

Our labor movement and our country have largely been shaped by the sacrifice and commitment of ordinary people to high ideals. There is nothing more fundamentally transformative than when ordinary people unite to shape the destiny of this country. This is the proud history of the labor movement, the women’s movement, and the Civil Rights movement.

Life is too short to allow petty tyrants to run the country – or our workplaces – for their own private benefit. Postal workers deserve a good life at work and the time and energy to have a meaningful life away from work. Nobody is coming to save us. It is up to us to improve our working conditions. We have the power to make positive changes for ourselves and future generations. Let’s use our power and let’s use it now.