Labor Laws and Unions

labor laws and unions

Labor Laws, Unions, and the US Postal Service

Karin S. Campbell

Human Capital Management – HRM 531

12/182011

Instructor: Bob Hanks

The United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service (also known as USPS, the Post Office, or U.S. Mail) is an independent agency of the United States government and is responsible for providing postal service in the United States. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution. The USPS traces its roots to 1775 and became unionized in 1971 under the Postal Reorganization Act during the Nixon Era, following the 1970 Postal Strike.("The Smithsonian National Postal Museum", 2010).

History

In March of 1970, a “wild-cat” strike among U.S. postal workers had become rampant across the country. The strike had spread to 100 U.S. cities, and involved more than 200,000 postal workers. At the core of the strikers’ complaints were recent Congressional actions that gave a 41% pay raise to Members of Congress, while postal employees received only a 4 % raise.

At a time before cell phones and the Internet, when fax machines were brand new and few in numbers, mail carriers toted the nation’s commerce and information in their bags. Letters, bills (and checks to pay those bills), birthday cards, passports, legal documents, and even draft notices piled up in mail sacks on post office floors across the nation. The strike came to an end a little over a week after it began. The solution to many of these problems at that time was the reorganization of the Department on July 1, 1971, into the U.S. Postal Service. ("The Smithsonian National Postal Museum", 2010).

Governing Laws

Unions are governed by the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (The Wagner Act, also known as the NLRA). The NLRA was passed by Congress and signed into law in 1935. The Wagner Act also established the National Labor Relations Board....