There's Always Work at the Post Office

African American Postal Workers and the Fight for Jobs, Justice, and Equality

Bibliographic Data

ID19922519
AuthorsPhilip F Rubio (0000-0001-7674-9876, corresponding author)
Year2010
Pages408
Publication date2010-05-15
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueThere's Always Work at the Post Office: African American Postal Workers and the Fight for Jobs, Justice, and Equality (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherUniversity of North Carolina Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.5149/9780807895733_rubio
OpenAlexW4254811830
ISBN9780807895733
Open LibraryOL23962514M
LanguageEN
Citations received9

This book brings to life the important but neglected story of African American postal workers and the critical role they played in the U.S. labor and black freedom movements. It integrates civil rights, labor, and left-movement histories that too often are written as if they happened separately. Centered on New York City and Washington, D.C., the book chronicles a struggle of national significance through its examination of the post office, a workplace with facilities and unions serving every city and town in the United States. Black postal workers—often college-educated military veterans—fought their way into postal positions and unions, and became a critical force for social change. They combined black labor protest and civic traditions to construct a civil rights unionism at the post office. They were a major factor in the 1970 nationwide postal wildcat strike, which resulted in full collective-bargaining rights for the major postal unions under the newly established U.S. Postal Service in 1971. In making the fight for equality primary, African American postal workers were influential in shaping today's post office and postal unions

Sociology · Work (physics) · Engineering · Labor Movements and Unions · Mechanical Engineering · Music Education and Analysis · Race, History, and American Society · African americans · Employment · employment · Labor unions · Postal service, employees · united states

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