Post Office Workers

Originally published in 1984, this book provides the first full account of the lives and aspirations of those who have worked in Britain to deliver mail, convey telegrams and transmit telephone conversations from the beginnings of such activities to the middle of the 20th century. For many years the British Post Office was the prototype public enterprise and the largest employer of labour in the world. Although the book centres on the trade union activities of Post Office workers, it places them fully in the context of the social, economic and technological progress of the 19th and 20th centuries. Wages and conditions in the Post Office became a matter for political debate, especially after trade unions were ‘recognised’ in 1906. There is much in this book about the particular character of trade union organisation in the Post Office and there is a full account of the special contribution of the Union of Post Office Workers/Union of Communication Workers and their predecessors to the trade union and labour movement as a whole. The later chapters cover a period of huge organisational and technological change. This is a major study of a facet of UK national life which remains a classic book in the area.