Two books written by long-serving CWU activists Norman Candy and Phil Chadwick tell the story of the postal industry and its employees from the early 19th century right up to the present day.
Norman's London Postal Workers: A Trade Union History takes us from 1839, through the Victorian era, two world wars, the big 1971 strike, Grunwick solidarity, and up to the 1990s - a period which is described in the book as "The Decade of Conflict". "On and off I've been working on this for several years," he says, adding: "I wanted our members to know about the roots of our union, where we came from and the brave people back in the 19th century who sacrificed so much for their fellow workers."
And in the opening chapters we learn a great deal about our union's early pioneers, such as William Booth, Henry Fawcett, Tom Dredge, William Clery and others, who suffered victimisation, dismissal, even prosecutions when they organised for fair pay, job security and dignity at work.
"Booth in particular particularly impressed me," says Norman, "he gave the most, was the most effective and died in poverty."
In contrast, the founder of the uniform postal tariff, Rowland Hill, comes in for strong criticism from the author, who disagrees with the image of Hill as a benevolent Victorian reformer.
"Rowland Hill saw workers as commodities and opposed every attempt to raise pay and conditions," says Norman, who references in his book a 1832 policy proposal from Hill entitled Home Colonies which argued for work camps to be set up for the poor where they would "work insulated from vice, and when the habit of industry has been learned they would be allowed to re-join society."
Another surprise comes when we read that, during World War One, "...George Stuart, General Secretary of the Postmen's Federation appeared on platforms alongside Post Office officials urging 'every young man who is physically fit and capable of bearing arms to rise to the occasion'."
But the later parts of the book are equally important to Norman, who worked for Royal Mail and was an activist in the union from the late 1970s, through the1980s and 1990s, and served on the union's London Divisional Committee and National Executive.
"There was so much inaccurate information around about the disputes and issues of those years that I wanted the opportunity to put that record straight for our members today - particularly younger members coming into our movement," he explains.
And the need to put the workers' point of view on record was also behind Phil Chadwick's decision to put pen to paper about our industry's stormy start to the 21st century. "I wanted to get our story out there," explains Phil, a former CWU Western Counties Branch secretary who worked in the postal industry for 30 years before taking voluntary redundancy in 2012.
"My book is about the battles this union and its members have had from the passing of the Postal Services Act 2000 until privatisation last October," he continues, and explains that he called his book Scratching the Surface "because there was so much that I had to leave out."
We begin with a detailed look at the regime introduced by the 2000 Act, including the industry regulator, the pricing system, the other restrictions that were imposed on Royal Mail and the CWU's campaigning.
Section Two features the major disputes of those years, the big walkouts of 2003, the national strikes of 2007 and 2009 and what Phil describes as "the false dawns" that followed each one.
And our author concludes by focussing on the culture of the workplace - "the daily challenges that our front line postwomen and postmen face.
"I want to put the reader in the postal worker's shoes - and also in the CWU rep's shoes - and I want postal workers to read this and say to themselves: 'that's right. That's what's happening out there'," Phil points out.
London Postal Workers: A Trade Union History 1839-2000 by Norman Candy, £6.99, published by Blue Collar ISBN 978-0-9929452-0-6
Scratching the Surface by Phil Chadwick, £14.99, published by Zero Books ISBN 978-1-78279-524-7 also available in 'ebook' format for £6.99 ISBN 978-1-78279-523-0, further details here http://www.zero-books.net/books/scratching-surface" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;