Postal Workers Confront Canada Post, The Struggle Continues in 2016

Written on July 27th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

Published on The Bullet, Socialist Project’s E-Bulletin No. 1285, by Evert Hoogers, Donald Swartz, Rosemary Warskett, July 26, 2016.

… The Issues: … //
… State of Negotiations: … //

… Looking Ahead:

It would appear that we are in the midst of the ‘calm before the storm’. Evidently, Canada Post is committed to extracting concessions from its workforce and there is little likelihood that CUPW will acquiesce to Canada Post’s demands without a fight – not least to the demand for an inferior pension plan for future, younger, workers. Two-tier pay systems that require workers with different pay and/or benefits to work side-by-side offends most workers’ sense of justice and solidarity and many will go to great lengths to avoid this situation. In 2009, for example, steelworkers in Sudbury and Port Colborne struck for almost a year in an unsuccessful bid to block Vale Inco’s imposition of a two-tiered pension system. [Ed.: see Bullet No. 253 and Bullet No. 395.]

CUPW, with its commitment to equality between male and female workers, as well as full and part time workers, that goes back to the 1970s, is unlikely to act any differently. Indeed, when faced with an attempt by management to create a new lower classification in conjunction with the introduction of new technology back in 1974, they struck illegally to block it. For the same reason, CUPW is unlikely to simply abandon its demand for equal pay for rural carriers.

How this will play out remains to be seen with the Federal government being something of a wild card, albeit a crucial one given its ability to invoke the law and the power of the state. We can be certain, however, that much will depend on the support those of us who are committed to social justice and equality, expanding public services and spaces and ecological sanity, can provide to CUPW … //

… Activists need to find ways to put pressure on the leaders of both public and private sector unions, insisting that they go beyond perfunctory statements of support, and even promises of financial assistance, to communicate the importance of the issues to their members and to commit significant resources to mobilizing concrete solidarity with postal workers.

We also need to communicate support for postal workers to the government. Messages from individuals and groups to the government and individual MPs should not only call on the government to press the post office to drop its demands for concessions and respond positively to CUPW’s demands, but also express support for CUPW’s proposals for the future of the postal service. For details see www.CUPW.ca/CanadaPostReview. Equally importantly, we should also communicate support for expanding postal services directly to the Task Force on the future of Canada Post at www.Canada.ca/CanadaPostReview

(full text, related reading).

(Evert Hoogers is a former CUPW National Union Representative. Donald Swartz and Rosemary Warskett both taught at Carleton University for many years).

Links:

The Sharing Economy That Is Not, Shaping Employment In Platform Capitalism, on Social Europe, by Jan Drahokoupil and Brian Fabo, July 26, 2016;

Back in Work, Still Out of Pocket, Labor Market Recovery Since the Great Recession, on naked capitalism, by Lambert Strether, July 25, 2016;

Trump Can Win, on ZNet, by Michael Moore, July 25, 2016;

Explaining the Problem with Lesser Evilism, on ZNet (first on Davidswanson.org), by David Swanson, July 25, 2016;
Answering David Swanson, on ZNet, by Michael Albert, July 25, 2016;

How a queer liberation collective has stayed radical for almost 40 years, on Waging NonViolence, by Toshio Meronex, July 23, 2016;

The Arts of Protest – 6 creative ways to make your point at the conventions, on Waging NonViolence, by Nadine Bloch, July 19, 2016;

STWR book now available: Heralding Article 25, on Share The World’s Resources STWR, by Mohammed Mesbahi, July 12, 2016;
(see also: Sharing as our common cause – report, on STWR, Dec 4, 2014);

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