Category: Front Page

Vancouver local members will be picketing in front of liberal Ministers offices in the lower mainland.

If you are interested in volunteering your time between 8am to 10am on Monday December 16^th please show up to any of the below offices with your picket signs.

MP Parm Bains

11331 Coppersmith way, Richmond BC

Honourable Harjit Sajjan

6406 Victoria drive, Vancouver BC

Honourable Terry Beech

3906 East Hastings, Burnaby BC

MP Taleeb Noormohamed

3077 Granville street, Vancouver BC

Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson

310 Esplande E #201, North Vancouver BC

Let’s make some noise and let the Liberals know ordering us back to work illegally under section 107 of the Canada Labour Code is a massive violation of workers rights and Canadian democracy.

Canada Post must bargain in good faith.  For more information please contact

[email protected]

[email protected]

In Solidarity,

Anju Parmar, President

 

Our members are angry and disappointed  after this morning’s announcement by the minister of labour, Mr. McKinnon. It is definitely a sad day for us and it is unfortunate that the employer could not come back to the bargaining table to negotiate a fair Collective Agreement for its workers. We all need to stay strong and united at these times.

There will be much more information coming out in the next days so unless  anything changes, we will be holding the picket lines.

Stay United Stay Informed

In Solidarity,

Anju Parmar, President

 

 

While Canada Post management continues to delay progress in negotiating a fair deal with us, they are still receiving their full wages, including bonuses. Meanwhile, our sick and injured coworkers are left to struggle on their own, as their medical costs and short-term disability payments have been callously cut off by a corporation that shows little regard for their well-being.

As your Local Grievance Officer, I am advising all members to file grievances:

• If you were receiving short term disability payments at the start of this strike
• Or you were receiving medical benefits under our long-term disability plan

If you have had these payments and benefits cut off, I will fight to have them paid for by this heartless Corporation. Please contact me directly at the Hall for further direction.

Allan Dobbs (604) 685-6581 ext. 5

In Solidarity,

 

Allan Dobbs, Grievance Officer

I have been involved since 1974 on countless strikes conducted by CUPW. Several lasted a long time.

In some situations, the employer brought in scabs and drove them through our picket lines to break our resolve.

I started in Scarborough Ontario and we held the line to stop the employer from introducing a new classification to deal with mechanized mail preparation. Because of that experience we had to strike again so that we could negotiate provisions for technological change.

The issues in those two strikes were remarkably similar to the present situation where the employer, among other concessions, seeks to create positions with lesser wages, benefits and security to deal with changing work and processes at Canada Post.

I was on picket lines in Scarborough, Vancouver, Nelson, Edmonton (as local president) and was also National Director and National Executive Board member during the 2011 strike when Stephen Harper and Pierre Poilievre legislated an end to the strike after only days of rotating strikes. That legislation aimed to destroy our pension plan and even reduced the employers wage offer at the time. These politicians are not there to help us as workers. A Liberal government jailed Jean Claude Parrot for standing up to them.

From my experience I have seen how strikes build our solidarity and create an environment of cooperation and support among workers. This solidarity will continue even after you return to work.

Strikes are a time when we question our futures at work and in society as a whole. We start to see the unfairness of the situation as it pertains to workers. The experience is remarkably similar in every local large and small across our country. Other union members from other occupations will join us on our picket lines and in our rally’s because they identify with our struggle.

During an extended strike some people will experience insecurity and some will face hardships that are frightening. We are all in.

John Bail (Retiree)

 

 

 

One of the noticeable and encouraging elements of this strike that I have noticed—in addition to the legendary solidarity shown by the workers themselves—is the active participation of retirees across the country on the picket lines, at support rallies and in social media.

I’m one of those retiree supporters. And I’m sure my reasons for participating in solidarity actions are very much the same as the other “old timers” that younger workers may have noticed at these events.

For one thing, several of the pressing issues in 2024 are remarkably similar to the issues when CUPW members of my generation hit the streets fifty years ago or so. My first national strike was in 1974, when the overriding issue was Canada Post’s attempt to impose a 2-tier wage system on new hires—mainly women and racialized workers hired during the first wave of automation.  Postal workers in full solidarity won that battle.

Later, the obsession of the employer with attempts to divide workers using the same kind of technique continued unabated.

So, it is no surprise that the current attack of the Corporation features totally unacceptable “tiered” conditions such as establishing a group of “precarious” workers on the weekends outrageously limited to 8 hours work per week. It’s been accurately described as a “race to the bottom”.

Likewise, my fellow retirees and I are totally appalled by the attempt to strip away the Defined Benefit Pension plan from future retirees that guarantees cost of living increases. This plan was fought for and won in past struggles and its replacement by a market-based Defined Contribution Pension plan geared to reducing, rather than improving the lives of retirees. This is a step backwards to an earlier century

There are many other concession items in the Corporation’s sorry excuse for a collective agreement “offer” that illustrate how important it is for active members and retirees to stand together with a determined insistence that this strike will advance postal workers’ wages, rights, benefits and power in the workplace. What I’ve seen of the strength on the picket lines tells me this stands a great chance of success.  This is encouraging and exciting to a retiree like me.

I want to mention one important further matter that motivates me to actively support this strike. The anti-union model pursued by the Corporation in its demands is one that, if adopted, would render all its workers instantly replaceable and the union representing them basically powerless. To this end it has for some years promoted the development of a precarious workforce and entertained the prospect of privatization on the not-too-distant horizon.

Retirees, for many years during our working lives were in the middle of struggles to advance a completely opposing agenda— one that promoted a vision of a public Postal Service that uses the huge Post Office infrastructure to expand services through plans like those advanced in CUPW’s “Delivering Community Power”—and to ensure good, meaningful and unionized jobs for generations into the future.

I’m committed to supporting this important project, which can be realized with the united strength and power of CUPW workers, retirees, the labour movement and our many supporters in communities across Canada.

Winning this strike and continuing the fight for a public postal service will require a lot of work, to be sure.

But here’s one retiree, along with many others, who embrace that struggle.  We take our inspiration from the active members of CUPW on strike who are showing the way. SOLIDARITY!

Evert Hoogers (Retiree)

 

As we are on day 19^th of CUPW strike, I as the CUPW Vancouver Local President want to thank you for the energy, solidarity, determination you have shown.  Your efforts and the support are commendable and amazing and has made me so proud that I am part of this Local.

When I see members picketing in all sorts of weather I am grateful.   The fact that our picket lines have been places for karaoke singing, bhangra and other types of dancing, incredible food experiences, and dog shows makes me smile and sends a strong message to Canada Post that we are not giving up.  We are telling Canada Post that we want a fair negotiated Collective Agreement and its not much to ask for.

The members along with local Sec Treasure who have spent hours and hours processing forms and ensuring to get strike pay are doing incredible work. They are working hard to get it done.

Our Picket Captains, Zone coordinators, local executives and other members who are working behind scenes with the nitty gritty of running a strike have my complete admiration.

All of our efforts are having positive results.  Canada Post thought we would be weak and divided but we are not.   Canada Post thought that we would not get public support but everywhere we are getting honks, food and coffee donations. and we are getting more and more support on our lines from our allies on the picket lines across.  Last week BC Federation of Labour held a rally to support the Postal Workers and we also had NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh visited the picket lines at NFDC.

Our local is doing tremendous amount of work when it comes to engaging members. We did an amazing action at PPC for stopping MGMT and APOC going in to work while our members are getting layoffs. This action made a big impact in our region and it was not only empowering but sent a strong message to Canada Post that, we are 55,000 strong. We also occupied an office of Burnaby MP Terry Beach to relay the concerns around members on long term disability who are not able to use benefits they need on daily basis because Canada Post inhumanly cut their benefits.

So far, instead of listening and trying to resolve issues, Canada Post seems to be intent on trying to intimidate us.   To date, Canada Post has:

• laid off: In our local about 47 have reported being laid off.  It may not be even legal for Canada Post to lay people off in the middle of a strike.
• deny of extended health benefits.   This has put some Postal Workers and their families in bad situations as they cannot afford to pay for needed medications and therapies.
• refuse to pay sick and injured people who are off on short term disability.

CUPW is working hard to achieve a fair and just Collective Agreement and to make sure that postal workers get all the support and solidarity they need.

Thanks for the support and Solidarity which shows Postal Workers are unstoppable. Keep up the great work and Fight the good fight!!!!

Stay United, Stay Informed

In Solidarity,

Anju Parmar, President Vancouver Local 846