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Operation Graphic Hand

Operation Graphic Hand was an execution of an augmentation plan designed to augment the US Post Office in response to postal strikes. The National Guard was called into federal service to suppress insurrection, unlawful obstruction or rebellion, conspiracy, and infringements of civil rights and to repel invasion or execute the laws under the legal authorities of 10 USC 331, 332, 333, 3500, and 8500.

Selective mobilization is an expansion of active duty forces in response to a peacetime domestic crisis. The President, or Congress, upon special action, may order expansion of the active duty forces by mobilizing units and individuals of the Selected Reserve to protect life, federal property, and functions or to prevent disruption of federal activities. An example of this authority was in early 1970 when Reserve Component units were mobilized as part of Operation Graphic Hand. The 1970 postal strike involving 150,000 workers was the largest Federal stoppage.

The Army had been called upon many times throughout U.S. history to perform various functions connected with labor disputes, and the duties have ranged from peacekeeping to providing essential services. During late March and early April 1970 another occasion arose in connection with a work stoppage by postal employees, and the President of the United States called upon the military services to assist the Post Office Department in maintaining essential postal services. The postal strike began on March 18 in New York City and spread rapidly to widely scattered cities. The peak of the work stoppage was reached on March 23 and 24. Mail service in thirteen states was disrupted as some 200,000 of the 750,000 postal workers were off the job.

On March 23, President Nixon declared a national emergency and directed the Secretary of Defense to respond to requests of the Postmaster General for help in restoring and maintaining postal services. The Secretary of Defense in turn designated the Secretary of the Army as executive agent. The joint operation was nicknamed Operation Graphic Hand.

Although planning for military augmentation of postal facilities had to consider the possibility of a nationwide postal strike and operational requirements in thirty-five priority cities, Graphic Hand was executed in New York City only, during the period from March 23 to April 4. The multiservice force, named Task Force New York, was under the operational control of Major General Walter M. Higgins, the commander of Fort Hamilton, New York. Authorized by EO 11519 of 23 March 1970, a total of 28,100 Active and Reserve (26,273 Reserve, which included 10,845 ARNG and 1,876 ANG) were mobilized. Over 18,500 military personnel were assigned to seventeen post offices on March 25, the peak day of operation; 12,764 were Army (750 regular Army, 6,839 National Guard, and 5,175 Army Reserve). The balance were Air National Guard and Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps Reserve forces. More than 1,000 troops delivered mail in New York City's financial district; the remainder sorted mail and kept strikers from interfering with delivery.

The military personnel, working under postal supervisors, sorted mail, transported it to substations and other areas, and delivered bulk mail to businesses and charitable organizations. No residential deliveries were made. According to postal officials, service personnel processed 12.8 million pieces of outgoing letter mail leaving New York City; processed 4.4 million pieces of letter mail for delivery in New York City and cased over 3.2 million pieces of mail for city delivery; delivered nearly 2 million pieces to business firms and charitable organizations; delivered 3.2 million pieces to callers; delivered 11,986 registered letters; and loaded or unloaded 96 trailers of mail.

Postal workers began returning to work on March 25, as prospects of an acceptable settlement of their wage and other grievances increased. On March 26 postal authorities canceled requirements for military augmentation of the post offices, demobilization began, and the operation was completed on April 4, 1970.

Work stoppages by Federal employees occurred as far back as 1835, when civilian blue-collar yard workers of the Navy Department in Washington, D.C., struck over working hours and for a "general redress of grievances." After appealing to the Secretary of the Navy, but gaining little satisfaction, the workers returned to their jobs. Between 1835 and 1937, there were at least 25 other stoppages by Federal employees, mostly civilian blue-collar workers of the Army and Navy Departments.

These stoppages were primarily strikes of mechanics for wage and hour improvements just as were strikes of such workers in the private sector. There were some exceptions to the general rule of Federal strikes by only blue-collar workers. For example, in 1907, 26 postal employees in Butte, Mont., struck over wage and reclassification issues. Eight of them were replaced when they failed to return to their jobs. In 1937, a strike by Federal public health workers ended when the national union, the American Federation of Government Employees, expelled the local for violating the no-strike clause in its constitution.

Between 1962 and 1981, 39 work stoppages by Federal Government workers had been recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Office of Personnel Management. These stoppages occurred despite legislation explicitly prohibiting any type of strike activity by Federal workers. The statutory prohibition began with the Lloyd-LaFollette Act of 1912. This act gave postal workers the right to organize, as long as they did not join unions asserting the right to strike. Later, the strike ban was extended to cover other Federal workers and was codified in section 305 of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, which read, in part : " It shall be unlawful for any individual employee of the United States or any agency thereof including wholly owned government corporations to participate in any strike . Any individual employed by the United States or any such agency who strikes shall be discharged immediately from his employment, and shall forfeit his civil-service status, if any, and shall not be eligible for reemployment for three years by the United States or any such agency."

Criminal penalties were added to the body of antistrike legislation in 1955. In 1966, strike activity by Federal workers was further proscribed in the U.S. Code relating to Federal employment. The statutes prohibited the holding of a Federal job by persons who (1) participate in a strike, (2) assert the right to strike, or (3) belong to an organization that asserts the right to strike against the U.S. Government. The penalties for noncompliance were a fine of not more than $1,000, or a jail sentence of up to a year and a day. More recently, the ban on Federal strike activity was codified in Title VII of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which states that, for a Federal employee ". .. . . . it shall be an unfair labor practice . . . to call, or participate in, a strike, work stoppage or slowdown, or picketing of an agency in a labor-management dispute if such picketing interferes with an agency's operations, or . . . to condone any activity described in this paragraph by failing to take action to prevent or stop such activity . . . ."

Air traffic controllers participated in five strikes, including an 81-day dispute in 1981, the longest Federal strike on record, which resulted in the firing of approximately 11,500 controllers. Air traffic controllers were penalized in 4 of their 5 stoppages, having multiple penalties imposed in at least one stoppage. In addition, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization temporarily lost its dues checkoff privileges as a result of their 1969 walkout and was decertified as the controllers' bargaining agent following their nationwide stoppage in 1981. This was the only incidence of decertification in any Federal dispute since 1962.

In 2 of the 4 postal strikes, workers were discharged or suspended for varying lengths of time and received letters of reprimand. No penalties were imposed in the other two stoppages, including the 9-day strike in 1970 which involved more than 150,000 postal employees. In 1971, the United Federation of Postal Clerks challenged the constitutionality of the laws proscribing strike activity by U.S. Government employees. Among other complaints, the union contended that terms such as "strike" and "participates in a strike," language common to all the laws in question, are so vague as to be unconstitutional. However, the court held that there was no vagueness in the two terms, and that, indeed, they "occupy central positions in our labor statutes and accompanying case laws . . . ." Subsequently, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the ruling of the lower court that the laws under attack were constitutional.