Council of Post Office Unions (COPOU)

Minutes of main committees and related reports, 1969-1980; experimental changes of practice committee files, 1967-1982; subject files and other records, 1950-1981; Publications from the COPOU library, 1970-1981.

The Council of Post Office Unions was established in 1969 at a time when the Post Office was ceasing to be part of the Civil Service and its employees were incorporated into a new Post Office structure. The Council comprised five unions at that time : the Association of Post Office Executives; the Post Office Engineering Union; the Union of Post Office Workers; the Post Office Management Staff Association; and the National Federation of Sub-Post Masters. In 1972 the Civil and Public Servants Association joined. The Council inherited many of the functions of the Post Office Departmental Whitley Councils. In 1982 the Council was dissolved having been replaced by the British Telecommunications Union Council and the Post Office Union Committee.

Reference: F. Bealey, The Post Office Engineering Union : the history of the Post Office Engineers, 1870-1970 (London, 1976).

This collection is available to researchers by appointment at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. See http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/using/

Records with references starting with MSS.89C were deposited by COPOU in 1975; those with references starting with MSS.89D were deposited following the dissolution of COPOU in 1982; those with references starting with MSS.260 were deposited in 1984 by the British Telecommunications Union Council, the successor to the COPOU.

Link to full catalogue: http://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/CPO

The Centre also holds records of the Post Office Engineering and Stores [later Engineering, Factories and Supplies] Departmental Whitley Council Staff Side, the Post Office Engineering Federation and the Post Office Departmental Whitley Council Staff Side.