This is a brief history of the Minneapolis Area Local of the APWU. A gentleman named Cedric S. Cady compiled 50 years of our local’s early history and presented it to our local for it’s 50^th anniversary celebration in 1965.  Local President, Jerry Sirois, was kind enough to give me access to this priceless document to research this article. Mr. Cady worked for the Minneapolis Post Office from 1914 to 1964 so he actually lived through many of the events and changes which took place during these years. His lengthy work is basically a chronicle of the birth and expansion and ultimate success of our local Union. What follows is a summary of some of the more important events of our past.

    Before the year 1915 Minneapolis Clerks belonged to the UNAPOC which was the United National Association of Post Office Clerks. The UNAPOC was more of a fraternal organization than a labor Union. It provided insurance and social outings for it’s members but did little to improve wages or working conditions.The National Federation of Post Office Clerks or NFPOC was a more radical and active Federation which was battling the UNAPOC for the right to represent Postal Clerks.

      This was a time of great struggle for all wage earners in this country and Postal Workers were no exception. Wages were very low and job benefits were unheard of. Clerks at the Minneapolis Post Office had very low wages and no benefits. Imagine life with no vacation, pension, or health plan. Life for Sub clerks was even worse.  They were not guaranteed minimum hours and to insure enough help management hired more subs than needed. Subs still reported to work but had to wait in break rooms for some work to open up and then they could go clock in. Sometimes they would sit for hours and then be sent home. Imagine getting a paycheck with nothing but zeroes on it. Joining the NFPOC gave Minneapolis Clerks hope for a better future.

     The two men instrumental in the creation of 125 were Gil Hyatt and William Quady. Gil Hyatt worked on organizing the regular clerks while William Quady organized the Sub-Clerks. Both had previous Union experience before becoming Postal Employees. Legend has it that Gil was inspired to start the new Union because of an incident involving Edward Purdy, who was Minneapolis Postmaster at that time. Apparently the Postmaster Purdy was leading a tour of local ladies around the Post Office and the highlight was to show them the first automated Postal Machine which was the model T canceling machine. Gil was running the machine and decided to put some wrong sized letters in it which caused an explosion of letters just as the tour reached the prized new machine. Later when Gil was casing letters manually a very upset Post Master came up behind Gil and gave him a hard kick in the posterior. Can you say anger management?

   Gil Hyatt and Bill Quady knew things had to change so they started secretly meeting with others to form 125. In August of 1915, for the cost of one dollar they applied for and received a charter to become part of the NFPOC. With much effort they were able to convince most of the clerks into joining the fledgling local making it the dominant postal union in Minneapolis. Two years later our own Gil Hyatt became President of the National Union.

     Cedric Cady also alluded to an interesting development at the Minneapolis Post Office during 1917. The post office received its first trucks to deliver mail. Nine military surplus trucks were delivered to the post office but apparently only one starter crank was ordered so only one truck could be started at a time. This somehow sounds kind of familiar. Okay back to the History of our Union.

     Any wage change or benefit inclusion, at this time, had to come from the United States Congress. The membership became very active in legislative activities and as a result several changes took place from 1920 to 1922. Postal Workers finally had a retirement pension, paid sick leave, and time spent in the military or as a sub would go towards retirement. Finally after many attempts, in 1925, a wage increase was enacted by congress. Incidentally in 1924 an unimposing little newsletter called the Federation News was started and continued until 1947 when it was renamed the Northern Light. Soon our little Paper became the most famous Labor Newspaper in all the land and because of the efforts of our current editor continues to do so.

 I am so proud! (sniff)  Please give me a minute to compose myself.

    Things were going quite well for the Nation as a whole until 1929 when the stock market crashed. Suddenly lowly postal workers had one of the best jobs in the country. Mail still had to be moved. But as the depression lasted for several years the Post Office had to start laying off employees. Local 125 started a good-will association to help the needy and many who remained at work supported one or two extra families. Finally with the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt things started to turn around.  As the mail volume increased the Post Office started bringing back clerks. Shortly after the end of the depression a new Minneapolis Post Office was completed.  Yes the very same building many of you have the pleasure of working in today. Working conditions for subs improved in 1940 when they were finally awarded annual and sick leave.

    This time of peace and prosperity was soon to end however. World War Two broke out and eventually 175 employees of the Minneapolis Post Office left work to serve the Military during this conflict. There was a service flag in the main lobby with that number proudly displayed. In 1945 Roosevelt passed away and at 125's next membership meeting a special memorial was conducted to honor the working man’s greatest president. A young college professor from Macalester College spoke eloquently at this meeting. This great orator soon became a regular speaker at our local meetings. Hi s name was Hubert H. Humphrey.

    During the fabulous fifties our Union Health Plan was born and clerks could finally accumulate unlimited sick leave. Also the Postmaster General ordered that equal number of men and women be hired as positions opened up. Women on the work room floor! Oh the pain, the pain. Hey I am just kidding!  Our local formed a sports council to help members enjoy recreational time together. The Sports Council organized softball games, bowling leagues and golf leagues, cribbage and checker tournaments and much more. It was chaired at one time by our local’s past President Earl Miller.

  Finally in the early 60's the UNAPOC along with the National Postal Transportation or MVS and the Railway Mail Union all merged to form the United Federation of Postal Clerks which would eventually become the APWU.  The other huge event at this time was when President John Fitzgerald Kennedy signed an Executive order forcing the Post Office to negotiate employee contracts with the APWU. In the past the Union had to spend exorbitant amounts of time and money hoping to get congress to approve any pay raises or benefits. This didn’t work well since we had very few raises before the Post Office was forced to bargain directly with our Union. 

   I don’t have the time and space to do justice to this wonderful document put together voluntarily by Cedric S. Cady but it did give me a wonderful glimpse into the early life of Postal Clerks and how we got where we are today. This history of our local also contained many congratulatory letters honoring our 50^th anniversary, 1965, from such luminaries as Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, Senators Eugene McCarthy and Walter Mondale and many Congressmen like Donald Frasier amongst others. There are also many ads congratulating the 125 from a variety of other Unions and business’s. This summer will mark the 90^th anniversary of our local and just 7 years from now we hopefully will be celebrating our centennial.

Bill Usher  2007