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Canada Post entered this round of bargaining with a massive program of rollbacks including the elimination of top-up pay for injured workers,
an attack on retiree benefits and the elimination of the sick leave plan. After long and, ultimately, fruitless negotiations, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) felt they had no choice but to issue a 72-hour strike notice. Canada Post responded by cutting off all drug benefit coverage for everyone, including workers on disability insurance. After 12 days of one-day rotating strikes, Canada Post responded with a full-scale national lockout. Ultimately, the lockout achieved what it was designed to do – provoke the Harper government into legislating the workers back after 13 days.
After the passage of the legislation, National President and Chief Negotiator, Denis Lemelin, sent the following message to members saying, “All CUPW members can go back to work with our heads held high. Throughout this struggle, we showed unprecedented strength, solidarity, determination and courage. Just as we were united on the picket lines, we need to be united and strong when we are back in the workplace.
We are returning to work, but we are not defeated. The government cannot legislate away our solidarity and determination. We will continue to work with all of the groups and organizations that have supported us, including labour unions, women's groups, students, pensioners and our community and political allies to fight for decent jobs and pensions for all working people.”
With the passage of Bill C-6, the Harper government's anti-worker bias was demonstrated clearly when the government vetoed every attempt by the opposition parties to amend the legislation. Predictably, the vote split along party lines with Conservative MPs voting in favour of the legislation and all opposition MPs voting against it. To see how your individual MP voted, you can click on the following link:
For further information on the dispute, you can visit the CUPW website at www.cupw.ca.
The TWU Political Action Committee thanks you for staying involved.