The American Postal Workers Union was formed in 1971 through the merger of five postal unions. For the next twenty years, up until 1991, membership in this union showed no increase and even showed a decline of 20,000 members between 1989 and 1991. Even today, the APWU represents barely two hundred thousand workers.

The decline in overall membership says a great deal about how this union treats its members:

Organizing
Despite their efforts, the Postal Workers can’t seem to win enough elections to increase the amount of dues they take in. Over the last 10 years, they’ve won barely half of the elections they’ve been involved in. And talk about unsatisfied customers – in the last 10 years the APWU has been involved in 11 decertification petitions and have never won! That means that employees who really know what this union is all about have voted to kick them out.