Canada Post lockout

[Salyut]

http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110614/postal-strike-110614/20110614/?hub=EdmontonHome

We've been having rotating strikes and such up here in the North. Today Canada Post just went and shut down everything. Screeching halt. This interview with a employee is pretty interesting. (http://www.calgaryherald.com/Letter+romance+mail+going+going+says+postie/4948230/story.html)



What did they do? On the day that the strike was announced, Canada Post chose to withdraw all benefits, including dental and vision care, prescriptions, vacation and adoption, maternity, sick and training leave -this was all while we were still working. I cannot receive a payout for overtime that I had worked and banked, and Canada Post has now also reduced my workweek to three days, cutting my pay by 40 per cent.
Shame they didn't do sit-downs and occupy the facilities. :(
Edit: I know the IWW is involved with Canada Post in Calgary at least.

[jake williams]

For some context:

CUPW, the union that represents basically all public postal workers and some private ones (eg. bike courriers in Toronto, I think), has a history as one of the strongest and most progressive unions in Canada. They were key in victories here for maternity leave, among others. Attacking them is a major priority for the right wing, as of course is attacking the public postal service.

Privatizing the post is absolutely a goal for the right wing, with pretty limited exceptions, and those, not in the majority governing party. The Post management has shown absolutely no interest in either ending the strike, or maintaining the quality of service, something which, as a nominally publicly owned company, it's actually legally obligated to do (so, for example, it's legally obligated to deliver the post every day, something which its two-day-a-week lockout explicitly violates). When CUPW offered to return to work under the old collective agreement, the Post refused. Now they've locked out everyone. Their agenda is quite clear, and frightening.

It's also an important marker for the direction of the NDP, the newly-elected "social democratic" opposition, a party going into convention this weekend. Not a lot of word from them yet, but the Tories are basically expected to table back-to-work legislation within a few days, so we'll see soon.

[miltonwasfried...man]

It's looking like harper is going to force a 'back to work' order for the postal workers as well as air canada employees. What a joke that guy is, so much for the rights of the working class.

[Salyut]

It's looking like harper is going to force a 'back to work' order for the postal workers as well as air canada employees. What a joke that guy is, so much for the rights of the working class.


Raitt said the government served the required 48-hour notice in the House of Commons Wednesday night, which means the legislation that would strip workers of their collective bargaining rights could be introduced in two days.

"Our Government is concerned about the effect this strike is having on Canada's economic recovery and on Canadians," Raitt said in a statement Wednesday night. "Canadians gave us a strong mandate to complete our economic recovery, and this is why we will put legislation on notice to ensure resumption and continuation of postal services."


oh noes not the economic recovery/economic action plan :crying:

[Salyut]

For some context:

It's also an important marker for the direction of the NDP, the newly-elected "social democratic" opposition, a party going into convention this weekend. Not a lot of word from them yet, but the Tories are basically expected to table back-to-work legislation within a few days, so we'll see soon.

The NDP are pretty useless (http://www.thestarphoenix.com/business/aims+stash+socialism+closet/4955315/story.html) given the fact that Harper has a majority and can they can't do fuck all.

[jake williams]

The NDP are pretty useless (http://www.thestarphoenix.com/business/aims+stash+socialism+closet/4955315/story.html) given the fact that Harper has a majority and can they can't do fuck all.
Well, it's not like they can do nothing. Apparently they're saying they'll fuck around procedurally, if they can, if a back-to-work bill is tabled.

Also, whether or not they can actually stop a bill in parliament, there are two important things about how the NDP responds:

1. It's going to help shape the future of the party. The NDP is a messy place right now, with a substantial part of its leadership totally committed to marginalizing its own membership and severing its ties to labour and other mass movements. But there's considerable opposition to this in the party, something they'll have to deal with in Vancouver.

2. It's going to shape the dynamics of extraparliamentary struggle. The NDP could, at least in principle, be a voice of a broad, basically extraparliamentary fightback against the ultra-right. They could be a voice which, being in parliament, the press actually listens to and sometimes reports on. They could be a voice which the Tories, in some cases, have to respond to: because, though without any credible opposition it doesn't look like it, they can't just totally ignore public opinion.

So, I do think it matters how the NDP responds. Probably though, of course, they won't do much and it won't help much.

[genstrike]

2. It's going to shape the dynamics of extraparliamentary struggle. The NDP could, at least in principle, be a voice of a broad, basically extraparliamentary fightback against the ultra-right.

No, they can't

[jake williams]

No, they can't
There's no reason in principle that they can't. They have a lot of progressive MPs, with deep roots in popular movements, who, until silenced by the leadership, sometimes say progressive things. I don't think they will, because I think the internal dynamics of the party are such that the left is being marginalized and pushed out. But they could in principle. It may be academic, but it's something much of the labour movement actually believes, and as long as there aren't any illusions, as I've said before, there isn't anything to lose in trying to push the NDP to the left.

[Salyut]

There's no reason in principle that they can't. They have a lot of progressive MPs, with deep roots in popular movements, who, until silenced by the leadership, sometimes say progressive things. I don't think they will, because I think the internal dynamics of the party are such that the left is being marginalized and pushed out. But they could in principle. It may be academic, but it's something much of the labour movement actually believes, and as long as there aren't any illusions, as I've said before, there isn't anything to lose in trying to push the NDP to the left.

The Trots have been trying to do that for years. I've seen absolutely no progress.

Hell. In Saskatchewan the provincial NDP elected a former oil executive from Alberta who made more then a few jokes about "reds".

[jake williams]

The Trots have been trying to do that for years. I've seen absolutely no progress.
Never said it would be remotely likely, nor do I think internal pressure in the NDP is of much use at all. I actually joined the party when I was a kid, and left a few years later, because I decided being a member was totally useless.

I do think, though, that if CUPW can push the NDP to delay back-to-work legislation long enough for them to get their shit together about how to respond, that could be useful. External pressure on relatively progressive MPs is not totally useless, relatively progressive MPs who do exist in the NDP (some of whom I know personally).

[Salyut]

I do think, though, that if CUPW can push the NDP to delay back-to-work legislation long enough for them to get their shit together about how to respond, that could be useful. External pressure on relatively progressive MPs is not totally useless, relatively progressive MPs who do exist in the NDP (some of whom I know personally).

How is that possible when the Tory majority lets them pass what they want?

[jake williams]

How is that possible when the Tory majority lets them pass what they want?
As I've said - they can try to delay procedurally, which could work for a day or two, and they can speak publically with a platform few others have. It's not a whole hell of a lot, and it's unlikely they'll use it for much (although I got a text from a friend in Vancouver saying that a fiery speech from Yvon Godin in support of CUPW received pretty considerable support from at least the convention floor, for what that's worth, and it's not much). The thing really is though that when we have so little, any little bit extra helps.

[ckaihatsu]

Stop union-busting in Canada and Colombia


Workers in Canada and Colombia need two minutes of your time - today. Is this email not displaying correctly?
View it in your browser.

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=f3995b46c18cb039818f29a32&id=0a6a9ab292&e=4e93ef2fad



This message is going to be quick and to the point.

And that's because I want you to spend the next two minutes showing employers and governments in Canada and Colombia what international solidarity is all about.

Canada Post has asked the federal government to compell workers to return to work -- effectively denying them the right to strike.

As the union puts it, the proposed new legislation " is contrary to ILO Conventions and contravenes the fundamental right of all workers to organize and to bargain collectively."

Send a message to the Canadian government today that this is totally unacceptable - click here now.

http://labourstart.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f3995b46c18cb039818f29a32&id=df00c0be4a&e=4e93ef2fad


Meanwhile, in Colombia a company that many of you will recall from a bitter strike in Canada last year -- Vale Inco -- is at it again.

Vale is trying to block efforts by workers in a coal mine to unionize, and it's using brutal intimidation.

Last year, we flooded Vale with nearly 10,000 messages when strikers in Canada needed our help. This year, it's miners in Colombia.

Take a moment to send your message of protest to Vale now.

http://labourstart.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=f3995b46c18cb039818f29a32&id=ba5c11ba91&e=4e93ef2fad


Thanks -- now, please forward this message on. Let's build these campaigns!



Eric Lee


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[RedTrackWorker]

Any news and analysis on this from the IWW comrades?

[YSR]

Yeah, check out the Recomposition (http://recompositionblog.wordpress.com/) blog where not only is some of the most high-level current IWW and IWW-influenced theory being published (and even without any of my articles yet! :cool:) but several of the bloggers are CUPW/IWW dual-carders really involved in the organizing and strike.

[RedTrackWorker]

Yeah, check out the Recomposition (http://recompositionblog.wordpress.com/) blog where not only is some of the most high-level current IWW and IWW-influenced theory being published (and even without any of my articles yet! :cool:) but several of the bloggers are CUPW/IWW dual-carders really involved in the organizing and strike.

Thanks for the blog link. I asked because I met one CUPW/IWW dual carder in 2010 at Labor Notes in Detroit and we had a good converation about public sector union work--too short since it was the last day that I ran into him and some of the other IWWers, who were about the only people I could talk to at the conference.

[El Louton]

Just like to say in the UK we're supporting the workers!

[Die Neue Zeit]

There should be a political struggle for a legislative (nay, constitutional) ban on employer lockouts in so-called "essential services."

[RED DAVE]

There should be a political struggle for a legislative (nay, constitutional) ban on employer lockouts in so-called "essential services."Well, since I gather you're Canadian, why not come up with a program for such a "legislative (nay, constitutional)" struggle. It sounds like your kind of thing.

The program should include organizations might initiate such a struggle, unions and other groups that might take it up and what political party is going to steer it through Parliament.

Get back to us when you come up with something and you've started doing some concrete organizing. A little practical work will do you good. (Unless of course, you're just one of those arm-chair Marxists.)

RED DAVE