United National Association of Post Office Craftsmen

The National Association of Post Office Clerks was organized in 1890. After a series of mergers with other postal unions, it became the United National Association of Post Office Craftsmen in 1956.

The United National Association of Post Office Clerks was organized in 1890 as the National Association of Post Office Clerks. In 1897, a seceding faction organized the United Association of Post Office Clerks. The National Association of Post Office Clerks and the United Association of Post Office Clerks merged in 1899 under the name of the United National Association of Post Office Clerks. In 1906, a seceding faction organized the National Federation of Post Office Clerks. In 1917, the Brotherhood of Railway Postal Clerks merged with the National Federation; the National Association of Letter Carriers and the Railway Mail Association affiliated with the A.F. of L. In 1956, the name of the United National Association of Post Office Clerks was changed to the United National Association of Post Office Craftsmen, and in 1961, this union merged with the National Federation of Post Office Clerks, United Postal Workers, and National Postal Transportation Association to form the United Federation of Post Office Clerks.

From the description of United National Association of Post Office Craftsmen files, 1903-1961, bulk 1933-1958. (Cornell University Library). WorldCat record id: 64755608

The National Association of Post Office Craftsmen claimed the year 1882 as their birth date. It was during this year that J. Holt Greene, a clerk in the Louisville, Kentucky, post office, began corresponding with other post offices throughout the country in an effort to promote a national convention of postal clerks to be held in Washington.

During the period prior to 1890, several local organizations of postal clerks were established and two conventions were called to establish contacts between the independent associations. In 1890, the New York organization issued a call to all first-class post offices to send delegates to a national convention. Delegates assembled in Washington from many large eastern cities and from as far away as Salt Lake City and San Francisco. The delegates to this convention formed the National Association of Post Office Clerks. Eight-hour day, fifteen-day vacation, and salary classification bills were drawn and submitted to Congress. The vacation bill was passed that same year, but the hours and classification bills could not get out of committee.

At the second convention of the National Association of Post Office Clerks in 1891, a legislative committee was named to look after affairs in Washington. The Committee was very active. It gave testimony several times before the House Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads. This was representative of the type of activity that "unions" of government employees could engage in. Probably the outstanding characteristic of public employment as contrasted with private employment is the fact that conditions of work are fixed by law rather than by negotiation between employer and employee. Strikes among government employees have traditionally been looked upon in the same manner as mutiny in the armed forces. This makes public service unions largely dependent upon legislative lobbying and other modes of political action.

The legislative committee of NAPOC lobbied vigorously and persistently during 1892 and 1903, but with little success. With every failure its activities increased. This ever-increasing activity on the part of their employees began to trouble the officials of the Postal Department and was also beginning to irritate some Congressmen.

In 1895, The Postmaster-General, issued an order that read in part:

"That hereafter no Postmaster, Post-office Clerk, Letter Carrier, Railway Postal Clerk, or other postal employee, shall visit Washington, whether on leave with or without pay, for the purpose of influencing legislation before Congress.

"Any such employee of the Postal Service who violates this order shall be liable to removal."

During the convention of 1897, a factional dispute arose in the NAPOC that was based in part on the failure of the National Association to secure legislation and a quarrel over the proper method of circumventing the Postmaster General's order. The granting of membership to supervisory employees was also an issue. Locals from Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco withdrew from the National Association and together with a large group from New York formed the United Association of Post Office Clerks.

The period of 1897-1899 was largely one of quarreling between the two associations during which the United . " . Association slowly made inroads on the National's membership. By 1899, the rank and file of both organizations had become thoroughly tired of the bickering. Pressure was brought to bear on local and national officers, especially in the National Association, to drop the fight and unite the two factions. In 1899, the two groups merged under the title of the United National Association of Post Office Clerks. This was to be the official name of the organization for over fifty years.

In 1900, a Chicago local of post office clerks was organized which affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. The Chicago local was not accepted in UNAPOC because it refused to abandon the AFL. This incident was the beginning of a schism among the postal clerks that would not be healed for over sixty years. The Association stated its position toward the AFL thusly:

"That as members of the said Association they were all civil service employees of the government and had taken the specific obligation upon entering the service, binding them to take no step that would embarrass the government in conducting its postal affairs and that, as organized labor had in the past achieved many of its victories in the struggle for justice by means to which clerks cannot resort without violating their oaths, it would be impossible for that reason to become members of your honorable body."

UNAPOC went even further and requested that the AFL recognize them as the official postal clerks organization, even though they wouldn't affiliate, and to charter no other organization in the field. This the AFL obviously could not do.

By this time, the Postmaster General's order of 1895 was largely forgotten or openly ignored and the representatives of postal employees were carrying on active agitation for new legislation in Congress. Member of both chambers, especially the House Committee on Postal Offices and Post Roads and its Chairman, were given no peace. Even President Theodore Roosevelt was annoyed by a floor of telegrams, letters, and petitions. On January 31, 1902, Roosevelt issued an executive order which became famous as the "gag order."

All officers and employees of the United States of every description, serving in or under any of the Executive Departments, and whether serving in or out of Washington, are hereby forbidden, either directly or indirectly, individually or through associations, to solicit an increase of pay or to influence or attempt to influence in their own interest any other legislation whatever, either before Congress or its Committees, or in any way save through the heads of the departments in or under which they serve, on penalty of dismissal from the government service.

This order almost stopped completely the activities of UNAPOC and created a great deal of internal dissension. The 1905 convention was marked by factional strife and the delegates of thirty five locals withdrew from the convention. Many refused to return.

It was felt in many of these locals that, since the voice of UNAPOC was silenced in Congress, that the clerks should have another voice for them. In August 1906, locals, chiefly San Francisco, Milwaukee, Louisville, and the independent Chicago group, formed the National Federation of Post Office Clerks and were granted a charter by the AFL. The founders of this organization wanted to create a definite break with the policy of UNAPOC "of working always in such a way as to conciliate and never embarrass the Department." The "gag order" was strengthened by Roosevelt 1905 and was later reinforced by President Taft. It was the goal of all postal associations to have the order rescinded during the next years.

The breach between the two clerks unions grew and there followed a ten year period of internecine warfare. During this period, however, in 1912, the Lloyd-LaFollette Act was passed restoring to postal employees the right to petition Congress. Both clerks unions claimed a great deal of credit for this victory. The evidence indicates that UNAPOC was still the dominant clerks organization although. the NFPOC was expanding all through the period.

In 1917, the Brotherhood of Railway Postal Clerks merged with the National Federation in the AFL and from this time on, the Federation claimed to be the leading clerks organization with UNAPOC dwindling slowly over the years. Also in 1917, the National Association of Letter Carriers and the Railway Mail Association affiliated with the AFL.

Later in 1917, UNAPOC made formal application for a national charter from the AFL. The AFL had no choice but to refuse the request because it had already chartered one union with jurisdiction over the postal clerks. The AFL could not charter two organizations in the same craft, but it did arrange a conference between representatives of the two rival clerks associations with a view to their amalgamation.

The conference accomplished very little and broke up in disagreement. The conferees could not agree on whether or not the merged organization would affiliate with the AFL. UNAPOC -wanted to let the first joint convention decide this matter. The NFPOC felt that there should be no issue as the NFPOC was already a member of the AFL and that UNAPOC should have no objections as they had just applied for membership. Nevertheless, this was the issue that broke up the conference. It must be pointed out, however, that the Federation felt that it would soon absorb the Association so it was not anxious to put itself out to accommodate what it believed to be a rapidly disintegrating rival. With the failure of the negotiations, enmity between the two groups became greater than ever.

UNAPOC did not entirely disintegrate, as the NFPOC hoped, but held on and became the center of propaganda against trade unionism among government workers It directed most of its energies against its rival, but engaged in bitter attacks against the AFL and the labor movement as a whole.

During the twenties the AFL postal groups frankly opposed the Postal Department UNAPOC assumed a conciliatory attitude. The Harding Administration had placed itself on record as opposing AFL affiliation for government employees and UNAPOC adopted policies calculated to win Departmental favor. In this it was successful. Even though UNAPOC itself had applied for an AFL charter, non-affiliation became its principal theme during the twenties and for many years after. Even as late as 1953, UNAPOC was still talking non-affiliation and could proudly state in its union journal that they "didn't have to take orders from the outside organizations."

UNAPOC's journal, The Post Office Clerk, reprinted articles such as one by a prominent English manufacturer called "Unionism as Foe of Labor" as a leading article. The article was prefaced with an editorial note stating: "The thought appears irrepressible and it is believed will impress all Post Office Clerks similarly, that if Unionism is in truth the foe of labor for the outside worker how much greater foe it must be to the government employee."

The Post Office Clerk had this to say about UNAPOC's rivalry with the NFPOC during the twenties.

"The drive against our organization has been stopped forever. Our national, state and local officers have met this drive of misrepresentation, deceit and pretense and turned back in confusion the disciples of external alliances. What with the severe criticisms of the _ affiliations by various congressmen, the earnest recommendations against them by the Salary Commission and the counsel of our beloved Postmaster General.

"We shall cooperate so closely together that there will be no need of affiliations" - certainly no advocate of external alliances has any doubt of the inevitable. The opposition is too great. For many years UNAPOC considered itself a "professional organization" and riot a "trade union." They preferred to secure redress of grievances through the cultivation of the good will of the officials rather than through the help of fellow workers. UNAPOC provided an organization for those people who felt that white collar workers were socially above trade unionism.

Even though the Postal Department supported UNAPOC and Assistant Postmaster's General cordial relations of the Department and the Association, UNAPOC continued to decline during the thirties and forties.

In 1931, UNAPOC and the NFPOC again met in merger discussions initiated by UNAPOC. The Association had for many years advocated one big union of all postal employee as a matter of principle, but these discussions fell apart because of the Association's insistence that a merged organization would have to abandon the AFL.

For UNAPOC, it seems, the thirties and forties were marked by a declining membership and increasing financial difficulties. It continued its lobbying activities on behalf of postal employees and provided benefit features for its members. Over the years UNAPOC slowly lost its enmity toward the labor movement and took its place as a genuine independent union.

In 1948, UNAPOC again called for a single union for all postal employees and opened its membership to other than clerks. In 1956, the name of the organization was changed to the United National Association of Post Office Craftsmen to more accurately describe its scope and ambition.

In 1961, UNAPOC and the NFPOC merged to close the split of over fifty years in the ranks of the post office clerks. They were joined by the United Postal Workers and the National Postal Transport Association and together they formed the United Federation of Post Office Clerks, AFL-CIO.

From the guide to the United National Association of Post Office Craftsmen files, 1903-1961 [bulk 1933-1958]., (Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library)