Chapter Seven studies how antagonistic labor-management contract negotiations between the U.S. Postal Service and its two major unions, the National Association of Letter Carriers and the American Postal Workers Union, almost ended with a called strike by those unions in the first year of President Ronald Reagan’s administration (1981-1989). This strike was averted by an arbitration mechanism built into the PRA. Union solidarity was embodied in the Joint Bargaining Committee. This chapter also charts the effects of automation on the workforce from the 1970s through the early 2000s.