Tony Benn as Postmaster General in 1964 & the end of the trade unions sherry party
In 2024 there are three trade unions that deal with what are now a separate Post Office and BT. The CWU for rank and file grades and Prospect (BT) or Unite/CMA (PO) for managers and professionals.
I’ve been an active trade unionist in what was then Post Office Telecoms since the late 1970s (started 15th October 1979) and there were certainly more unions then but nowhere near 36. The overall trade union body at that time was COPOU, Council of Post Office Unions, an arrangement that had arisen from the 1919 Whitley proposals.
Joint union discussions with the employer still occur certainly in telecoms.
Tony Benn became Postmaster General in October 1964 following Labour’s Election Victory and succeeded the Tory PMG Ernest Marples. He was the individual I was checking Benn’s diary for when I came across the vignette below
Tony Benn diary Tuesday 20th October 1964
….The suggestion that I should follow the usual practice and have a sherry party for the thirty-six unions that deal with the Post Office. I said I would not do this but would, instead, invite them to an all-morning working conference and we would have tea and biscuits at 11….
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