Post Office: Staff Association and Union Publications

This series is comprised of serialised publications produced by, for, or relating to, Post Office staff associations, unions and societies. The publications contain information on all aspects of union and association internal activity and their negotiations with management on wages, recruitment, grading and conditions. They also report on Annual Conferences and convey general staff news, such as appointments and the development and re-structuring of The Post Office and its subsequent effect on workers.

Please see The Postal Museum's online catalogue for descriptions of individual records within this series.

Each subseries or title is arranged in volume number order.

Pieces are one volume unless otherwise stated.

Many of the publication titles have undergone changes. They are listed as a continuous series and details of the change in title is given at subseries level. Some publications were numbered incorrectly or inconsistently at publication stage. The volume and issue numbers given in the description are those that appear on the publication.

For records on the formation, official recognition and operation of Post Office staff associations see: POST 65

Topics

Labour

Pay and pensions

Official publications

Communications

The earliest efforts to improve Post Office workers conditions can be dated to meetings held in and around St Martin's-le-Grand in the early 1840s which continued throughout the 1850s and 1860s. The early 1870s also saw efforts to set up more powerful and permanent organisations. By the early 1880s negotiations with the Postmaster General Fawcett took place, various reorganisations of grades and payments were made, and the telegraphists finally set up the Postal Telegraph Clerks Association in 1881. In the four years from 1887 the main organisations of Post Office workers were established. The provincial Post Office Clerks began the United Kingdom Postal Clerks Association in 1887. The London sorters transformed their 'Fawcett Scheme Committee' into the Fawcett Association in 1890 and the postmen set up their own Postmen's Union in 1889.

These four organisations were the predecessors of the Union of Post Office Workers which was formed in 1919 on the initiative of the National Joint Committee of Post Office and Telegraph employees. The Union of Post Office Workers became the Union of Communication Workers in 1980. Its membership included all postal workers except secretaries and engineering grades. In 1993 the UCW amalgamated with the National Communications Union, a Union predominantly of telephone workers, but also of the secretarial and engineering grades, to form the Communication Workers Union. The development of unions and associations for the supervisory grades paralleled that of the 'rank and file' bodies. The National Federation of Subpostmasters was founded in 1897, and the Communication Managers Association, was founded in 1907 as the Controlling Officers Association.