The 1971 United Kingdom postal workers strike was a

strike Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

staged by postal workers between January and March 1971.

Details

The strike was Britain's first national postal strike and began after postal workers demanded a pay rise of 15–20 per cent then walked out after Post Office managers made a lower offer. The strike began on 20 January and lasted for seven weeks, finally ending with an agreement on 4 March. After voting over the weekend, the strikers returned to work on 8 March. The strike overlapped with the introduction of decimal currency in the UK.

Private posts

A wide range of officially licensed and unlicensed private posts operated during the strike to fill the gap left by the withdrawal of official postal services. Some were genuine commercial services that provided local, national and international deliveries, but many were set up by stamp collectors and stamp dealers to provide

philatelic Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is possi ...

material for collectors.40th Anniversary of the 1971 Postal Strike
by Rodney Gudger, Maidenhead & District Philatelic Society, 2010. Retrieved 27 June 2011.

Legacy

The

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band Yes owes its success to the effects of the strike. In February, it released ''

The Yes Album ''The Yes Album'' is the third studio album by English progressive rock band Yes, released on 19 February 1971 by Atlantic Records. It was the band's first album to feature guitarist Steve Howe, who replaced Peter Banks in 1970, as well as t ...

'', its third album. Since its first two had not had been very successful, they had hired a new manager, Brian Lane. He promised he would make the album a hit. The strike prevented ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'' magazine from compiling its weekly sales charts of albums and singles, since record stores could not mail in their reports of sales figures. In their absence, the media used a chart compiled by

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

, owner of the

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

record store on

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and as ...

in London, based on sales at his store and a few others in the capital. Lane went to Virgin and bought as many copies of ''The Yes Album'' as he could to ensure it became the top-selling album at the store, and thus prominent in Branson's chart. As a result, the album began selling well enough nationally that after the strike, when ''Melody Maker'' was able to resume publishing its charts, it reached No. 4 and remained in the charts for 34 weeks, selling well over a million copies.

References

External links

BBC On This Day: Post strike ends with pay
5 March 1971, Retrieved on 31 October 2009.

* ttp://www.storyvault.com/video/view/post_office_strike_19701 A Post Office worker remembers the strike of 1971 . Video Interview United Kingdom Postal Workers Strike, 1971 Royal Mail Labour disputes in the United Kingdom Postal workers Postal Workers Strike Postal Workers Strike Postal Workers Strike Postage stamps of the United Kingdom Postal strikes Royal Mail labour relations {{Labor-dispute-stub

Details

Private posts

Legacy

See also

References

External links