Britain's 120,000 postmen resorted to strike action, After banning overtime and Sunday work, enforcing rules-book regulations, and organizing "guerrilla" strikes -- all of which led to_a monumental. pile up of mail, they staged a nation-wide, one-day strike July 16 and then threatened to make it indefinite. In face of this stand, Postmaster General Bevin conceded a six.and a half per cent wage increase, retroactive to January 1 and promised a serious study of pay scales — which have fallen far behind comparable trades.
The July 16 stoppage scored a spectacular success, On that day not a mail van moved. Not a letter was delivered, With most of. the country's 10,000 post boxes unopened, police tried desperately to put "box full" signs on those overflowing with letters, Nota stamp was sold. Graveyard quiet descended on 2,000 sorting depots,
Out of 5,000 workers at London's Mount Pleasant sorting office, only five reported for duty. Post office officials admitted that less than 100 of London's 25,000 postmen were at work, only ten in Liverpool, one in Nottingham, two in Edinburgh, twelve in Glasgow and
a "handful" in some country districts.
The backlog of undelivered mail rose to 55,500,000 pieces, The figure was “uncertain,” however, due to the “accumulation of unopened bags." It was not reported who counted the letters dumped out for processing.
‘Banner~waving strikers were on the march in Glasgow, Birming~ ham, Leeds and scores of other cities. In the biggest trade-union rally in twenty years, more than 20,000 marched into Hyde Park in. London.
The dispute had long been smouldering. It flared into an acute crisis July 9 when Bevins told the Union of Post Office Work~ ers [UPW] that four per cent was his top offer and that there would have to be a further "inquiry" before anything more could even be considered, He was only repeating what he had said last April. The UPW had rejected his offer then but had submitted to waiting for the report of a special committee of inquiry. [See World Outlook April 24,]. Bevin blandly argued that this new inquiry "need not take more than another two months,"
Even before Bevin's stalling maneuver became public, workers had started to vote with their feet, An estimated 10,000 postmen, many still in uniform and carrying banners, converged upon the General Post Office headquarters at St. Martins-le-Grand where nego~ tiations were taking place,
Addressing the angry demonstrators in a park nearby, UPW General Secretary Ron Smith said that the union executive had rejected the government's proposals and had decided to call a one-day strike on Thursday July 16.
"Why not now?" the crowd roared. "Why not tomorrow?"
With difficulty, Smith pleaded for silence. He urged the members to strike “not in anger" but in a "cool and disciplined way."
As the booing crowd grew more boisterous, Smith was escorted out of the park by half a dozen policemen,
By this time, Paddington workers had already staged a one-hour strike, Hammersmith postmen had taken similar action and went out again within eighteen hours, Chiswick joined in and stopped work again for an hour in the evening. Similar stoppages flared up in most parts of the country during the next 24 hours. At hastily called meetings (on the job), resolutions were passed banning overtime and Sunday work, effective at once,
The government reacted by suspending domestic parcel services and printed papers, They also urged the general public to stop using the postal system. The mail continued to accumulate, however, in
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mountainous proportions,
Support.for-the postmen was evident everywhere, In Parliament, Labour MPts defended the “unofficial” stoppages. Unions offered huge loans,
As for the UPW leaders, they acted like most bureaucrats when they feel their chair seats getting warm. There was much wriggling. They did everything possible to avert strike action but finally went along. In face of the solidarity of the rank and file and their increasing initiative, the 29-man executive voted unanimously for an indefinite strike beginning midnight July 25, This forced Bevins to concede.
The union demand was for a ten per cent increase; and the power demonstrated by the union in action-showed that this could have been gained under a leadership with anything stiffer than jelly in their spines, That many postmen have begun to think seriously about the need for more able and less cowardly leaders was one of the more interesting aspects of the strike, The Times noted this [ July 15], its labour correspondent declaring: ..
- "Quite apart from the desirability of restoring postal services to normal and preventing further dislocation, there is an internal problert:-facing the unions which, if left unresolved, could have. serious repercussions in the future. The postmen who are taking tunofficial action! in defiance of union instructions are led in many cases of !left-wing agitators,! These men are rapidly gaining prestige and -a reputation for militant action while the official leadership is apparently hesitant and over-moderate, -
"When the next annual elections are held for the executive, left-wing candidates may win many more seats as a result of the popularity they are now gaining. This could colour the whole polioy of the union, constitute a danger to the smooth relations with the Post Office and maintain an ever-present risk of a repetition of the kind of troubles now being fomented,"
What we are seeing in Britain today is the radicalization of sectors of the working class that have been traditionally conserva tive in outlook, Nurses, white-collar workers, school teachers, scientific and professional workers have all been involved in struggles for higher wages. A political indication of this development was the recent application of the highly skilled Post Office Engineering Union to affiliate to the Labour party.
Up to now postmen have been regarded as civil servants, "faithful to the crown" and too conservative to engage in struggle. The experience of the strike struggle shows that this image is now outmoded,
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