After almost five weeks on the line, a 96% strike mandate and many concessions, Canadian Postal Workers weren't able to have a say in their contract, yet again.

What does it mean when one of the strongest unions in Canada hasn't been able to negotiate a fair deal in 12+ years? Find out from the rank and file what happened and where they can go from here.

Strike Captain, Stop Steward and Mail Carrier Sera sits down with Host Jessa McLean to talk about the dealings with Canada Post bosses, the attempts to build militancy inside the union and more...

All of our content is free - made possible by the generous sponsorships of our Patrons. If you would like to support us: Patreon

End Song Credit: "What Unions Did for You", Dave Pomeroy

Resources:

• CBC: Labour minister asks Canada Industrial Relations Board to step into Canada Post contract dispute

Happy New Year, everyone. Here's to another 365 days of disrupting the status quo and trying

to bring down capitalism, one episode at a time. My name is Jessa and this is Blueprints of

Disruption. It's been a few weeks now since 55,000 Canadian postal workers were ordered

back to work by the Liberals and the Canadian Industrial Relations Board. Anytime we hear

that the right to strike has been undermined, we understandably get upset. This is the tool

of workers, right? Withholding or modifying our collective labor is one of the only real

pieces of leverage we have over our bosses. I'm sure that's not even news to any of you,

but this wasn't just any strike. This was Cup W and Canada Post did their workers dirty.

They didn't even try to bargain in good faith because they knew the precedent had already

been set. that the feds would undermine their constitutional rights and force yet another

contract on them. One of the most historically successful unions in Canada has seemingly lost

the ability to negotiate a deal with their bosses. Even with a 96% strike mandate, many concessions,

and almost five weeks walking the line. On the day they were ordered back to work, A CupW

Strike captain and shop steward sat down with me to talk about what the posties were demanding

and just why this latest development was such a blow to them. You'll hear details on the

back and forth with the greedy bosses at Canada Post. But come on, all of that was to be expected.

Bosses will be bosses. What becomes hard to accept and to hear is the lack of courage coming

from union leadership. They chose pragmatism again in their ever-weakening position. Because

on December 17th, when there should have been a massive display of defiance by Canadian labor

and allies, there wasn't even a handful of lines being held. No other labor union or coalition

officially walked with them. The odd flag showed up, but these numbers were in the dozens, not

the hundreds or thousands that it should have been. It was also crickets from the leader

of the federal NDP, the so-called Workers' Party. They spent none of their resources trying to

protect the right to strike in Canada in that moment. CUPW, whose strikes have helped set

employment standards we all benefit from, was out on their own. All our social media posts

and statements of solidarity translated into nothing meaningful when it was needed. We taught

the bosses a lesson that day, but it wasn't the one they should have been learning. They

should have witnessed the power of Canadian labor and the willingness of elected union

leaders to take risks in key moments, because this was a key moment. So, as it usually is,

the work is left to the rank and file. So let's hear from them. Welcome to Blueprint Sarah.

Can you introduce yourself to the audience, please? Hi, my name's Sarah. I'm a shop steward

with CPW Local 626 and a letter carrier. I also served as a picket captain for the last five

weeks that we've been on strike. You said it this time, right? Five weeks is a long time

to be a picket captain. So I can imagine today, emotions are very raw. For the audience, we're

on Tuesday, December 17th, talking to Sarah and- This is the day that Cup W workers have

been ordered back to work. Before we get into what that five weeks was like, let's help our

audience better understand the strike, you know, the meat and potatoes of why you folks were

on strike in the first place. Yeah, absolutely. The union was really left with no other choice

but to initiate strike action by Canada Post, who has fundamentally disrespected us. for

the last several years, six years that I've worked for this corporation. What they've tried

to do to us is they've tried to fundamentally restructure the way all of the work is done

at the post office. That restructuring affects everybody. It includes letter carriers like

myself, as well as people who work indoors. And the broad strokes of what they're trying

to do to us is to reduce our job security, reduce our benefits. reduce our pensions. And they're

trying to segregate the workforce yet more between casual flex employees and full-time employees.

This isn't just going to be, this isn't just going to hurt new employees who are hired under

the casual flex model, which is really gigification of our job, but it will affect everyone. For

example, the corporation has tried to implement something. two letter carriers called separate

sort and delivery. When I was hired with Canada post, what we would do is we would daily prepare

our mail, um, which meant we would sort our own mail and then we would take it out for

the day's delivery. This included mail, parcels and flyers. This gave them letter carriers

control over how their route was delivered. It gave them knowledge of where hazards were

on their route and were able to adjust their mail accordingly. And it was a fundamentally

much more efficient system for delivery than what the corporation is trying to implement.

The routes that letter carriers are being asked to do by the corporation have become fundamentally

inhumane. There's no other way to word what is being done. Letter carriers are being asked

to walk upwards of 30. 40 kilometers a day on routes which entail 9,000 stairs. They're being

asked to drive through Toronto traffic to get to these locations and being asked to do this

all in an eight-hour day. I'm not an Olympic athlete and asking me to do what is essentially

a marathon every day

is an absurd ask. On top of this, letter carriers are blamed. for their own health and safety

issues. The corporation was recently found by the Supreme Court of Canada to not be responsible

for health and safety issues that happen outside of the workplace, namely everywhere a letter

carrier goes. So they don't investigate those hazards. Wait a minute, wait a minute, sorry.

The places a letter carrier walks and delivers mail while being paid is not considered the

workplace? You're talking about like a sorting facility or where they pick up the mail or

park the vehicle and that's it. Yes. And that's all that the corporation is expected to have

general control over. And therefore the only thing that the corporation is really concerned

about when it comes to health and safety is the direct workplace where under SSD letter

carriers spend less than 30 to 40 minutes a day. If we get injured. We're often blamed

for our own injuries. We're often accused of rushing, which doesn't make any sense when

you're putting expectations on us of going 30 to 40 kilometers on our feet in a day, while

carrying increasingly heavy loads. The corporation has put an extreme focus, and I'm probably

annoying a lot of your listeners, but it is the corporation's major focus is on delivery

of ads in neighborhood mail. which we provide an essential service to Canadians, it's no

doubt, but the corporation is far more interested in these ads. And those ads can constitute

massive weights on the back of a letter carrier. We're talking for a loop that a letter carrier

has to do. It could be 60, 80 pounds of ad mail alone before you factor in the parcels, packets,

and like all the mail that the carrier has to deliver along that area. The major problem

that has always been the issue for letter carriers is that there's no time value given to the

carrier to deliver the flyers. The flyers are considered incentive piecemeal work, which

means we're paid one penny per flyer we deliver, but we don't get any time in our day. This

puts letter carriers into an untenable position, which essentially forces them into overtime

almost every day. The corporation doesn't like that the carriers are doing this. But their

solution is not to fix their measurement system. Their solution is to compact the amount of

time that the carrier spends in the depot by removing their need to sort the mail. The issue

is that previously, this was an unspoken truth, but it was a truth nonetheless, is that what

letter carriers were doing to make this situation work is they would prioritize that section

of delivery where they had the flyers for the day, and they would prioritize their parcels.

Then they would reintegrate the mail that was not in the priority section into the next day

delivery and just continue doing that. Which is not an ideal solution because it delays

the delivery of people's mail, but it was a solution that the letter carriers were forced

into. What the corporation has done by taking away our ability to sort and prepare our own

mail is actually deprive us of the ability to even do that. So now the corporation is putting

these expectations on us. that we will complete the entirety of a 30 kilometer route every

day despite knowing full well that much of what we deliver and which takes a significant amount

of time is not factored into route delivery. I mean and these are just your grievances,

some of your grievances for this particular work stoppage but Canada Post has a history

of being a shit employer. Right? Like this is upon layer upon layer of changes that have

happened to carriers and other workers within Canada Post over the years, the removal of

rural delivery. I know that was a liberal policy, but it's just, Cup W workers have not had it

easy for many, many years facing up against this employer. The timing of the strike is

likely what's on the lips of a lot of people talking to family members about the strike,

right? Let's be honest, there's certain times of the year where folks wouldn't feel the pinch

so bad and I kind of likened it to the teachers when they strike. It's really, really hard

to get the public to fully understand it when they're inconvenienced. I mean, I know that

is so lame to say, cause we can definitely unpack. why strikes are like the front line of the

working class against capital or one of the front lines. Me and you understand that value,

but you know, it's when it's like, oh, they're put out. It's, they find it harder to stand

in solidarity, obviously. So why did this happen around Christmas time? Was that a strategic

move by Cup W or was that initiated by the employer? more than patient with the employer. I mean,

we've been bargaining with them for over a year. Our demands have been known by the corporation

for over a year. We asked for raises in line with inflation to help us keep up with the

growing cost of food, with the growing cost of rent. Many letter carriers are making about

$35,000 a year because of the part-time casual work that exists in the post office. It's not

enough money to live on. And we're just asking for our of what we do. And our demands were

also related to the SSD model and the route structuring. Our demands were related to integrating

our RSMC unit, which is not paid hourly, into our urban unit, which is paid hourly. Our demands

were very, very basic. And we were not asking for much from this corporation. And we gave

the corporation those demands in February. The corporation... for a year. Did nothing with

those demands, didn't respond, didn't give us anything. That was until, I think it was roughly

near the end of summer, when they gave us their first global offer. And their first global

offer was like a quarter of our wage increase demand. We're currently, I think I've seen

the numbers that are like 18%. behind inflation. So that means over the last 20 years, our wages

are 18% below inflation. And we're asking for 19%, you know, we're asking for a little bit

extra, but not too much. The corporation offered us, I think 5% was their first offer. They

offered us 5% and they said, oh, by the way, we want to also get rid of all of your job

positions, all of your routes, and we want you all to be casual flex employees. That's not

a tenable solution. You knew about our demands. What a low ball. It was, we were all shocked

to receive this. And not only that, they didn't just submit it to our union to review and present

it to us. They mailed it out to every single of the 55,000 CPW members in a single page

document that essentially said, we're gonna give you 5%. And in return, You give us your

entire collective agreement. Obviously people are upset about this. The union came back and

said, well, we obviously can't accept this. Um, can you give us something better? And I

believe the corporation moved maybe 5.5%, but they also added that, Oh, you can keep your

route. But basically what we're going to do is we're going to assess your route at a length

that is way, way too long to complete. And then every day based off of AI. remove part of that

and give it to somebody else, our casual flex force.

There are like no bosses out there that aren't exploiting AI to fuck us even more. Gee Louise.

That was obviously unacceptable. And it was at this time that the union took their strike

vote and said, look, we can't work in these conditions. We can't work with what you're

giving us. So we have to take a strike vote. Corporation didn't budge on their on their

position after he came back with an resign resounding 96% strike vote When was that I think it was

an October. It's been it's blur. It's been so long So the corporation didn't bid budge on

their position at all We were essentially forced into the position because after you take a

strike vote You have to enact that strike vote or it becomes mute. I think it was like There's

like a legal limit somewhere between 30 and 60 days. And like everyone knows Cup W will

strike, right? So these employers are just they know the fucking liberals will order y'all

back to work eventually. There's so many industries that are just under the full understanding

that the right to strike has been so depleted at this point that they're just not even trying

at the bargaining table. I mean, it works for them once more. That sort of strategy of we

don't have to negotiate with workers. We don't have to give a damn what workers think because

they don't matter. They don't matter to us. They don't matter to this government. They

have no power. And for now, it looks like Canada Post is getting away with that strategy of

bargaining, which is essentially just to tell us to take what they're offering, the scraps

we're offering, and to shut up. You know? Um, and, um, we've budged on our demands. We came

down five, 6% on our wage demands. We offered them that thing they were saying they wanted

to do. We said, fine, you can do it. You can have your, you can, you can take work away

from letter carriers based off of your AI modeling by removing our, our right to 1508, which has

always been the cap on the corporation making routes too long, which was essentially letter

carriers are entitled to do overtime on their own routes. If the corporation is making routes

too long, then it's going to incur them overtime because the letter carriers are going to incur

overtime on a daily basis. But we said to them, look, we'll give up our right to overtime on

our own routes, which is a huge concession. It's a massive concession and it allows the

corporation to make routes really however long they want them to be. and then just piecemeal

out that work. That's bad faith bargaining, right? Seeing you folks move so much on that

and them just basically standing there smug as fuck, saying, yeah, okay, whatever. We just

have to outweigh you. I mean, I don't know if you folks heard before we did, but hearing

that the labor minister was going to refer it to the board and then you folks were ordered

back to work. You must have expected this at some point, right? Five weeks is a long time

to be on strike, and you are essential workers, and the Liberal government behaves like this.

I mean, maybe you weren't expecting this. Am I being presumptuous? Did you think that Canada

Post would make a deal? The corporation's modus operandi for, well, as long as I can remember,

certainly 2012 or 2011 in the Harper government. forced a contract onto us. 2018, when the Liberal

government forced an extension of the Harper government contract onto us, to say that we

weren't expecting back to work legislation would be, it would be naive. Frankly, that's why

I wanted to be a postal worker, since I was like a kid, because I saw how hard they fought

for their rights. I was... Excited to be a part of that. Um, it's the only real union I ever

saw strike to be honest Anyway, um, we were we were expecting back-to-work legislation

But in the liberal government as they often do lied to us every step of the way In order

to bleed us dry They kept us out on the line for almost five weeks and they told us the

whole time We're not gonna order you back to work. We're not gonna order you back to work

and we're not gonna order you back to work because you're obsolete. Nobody cares about the postal

service anymore. So you guys can negotiate what you want and that's how we'll get established.

What became increasingly clear as the postal service remained out on strike was that the

postal service very much is an essential service to the Canadian economy. We keep the wheels

of commerce moving, especially for small businesses, rural communities. in this country and as well

we depress the cost to ship goods. Canada Post offers flat rate shipping across the entire

country. Outside of urban centers to the most remote areas of this country, you pay the same

rate. No other carrier can possibly compete with that. And what became increasingly clear

is that the private companies were gouging. The private companies didn't have the capacity.

Anybody who tried to send anything knows that is true. And we also know that the CEO of Canada

Post is also the CEO of Pyrrolator. He's not the CEO. He is the audit committee chair or

something. Of Pyrrolator. Of Pyrrolator, yeah. Okay, thank you. I've posted both of his email

addresses on my Twitter account if anyone's interested. Yeah, he gets paid over $600,000

to sit as the CEO of Canada Post or somewhere between $580,000 and $620,000. He gets paid

somewhere plus 33% bonuses. Hold on, I got a fun fact because I sat with my family, we were

talking about the strike and managers and supervisors and vice presidents and I don't know where

I got the information, but I was able to find it, how many and what they were each paid.

And wow. upper management is just bloated at Canada Post. I mean, the top dogs get paid

a lot, but then there's a lot of like, a couple steps down getting paid a lot, a lot, a lot,

a lot of money. And it that is incredible when you consider the arguments that they're making.

What was it like for workers five weeks on? I mean, if they're all under the same knowledge

or assumption that eventually they will be ordered back to work, regardless of what Canada Post

is telling them to their face. Was that really hard to keep up people's spirits for five weeks

or were folks still militant and ready to hold the line a little bit longer?

some of the lines still being held. There's a large contingent of postal workers who understand

that this strike is really live or die for our union. And we know that if we don't get a good

contract now, we may never get a good contract. We may never have another negotiated contract.

So there's a large contingent of workers who are militant and want to hold these lines as

long as they can, but it's not because they're well equipped and not because they're not suffering,

because they are. But it's because we've seen literally no other choice. But there is also

a large contingent of people who are scared. They're scared because the charade that the

Liberal government and Canada Post played was effective. And that charade was, we don't have

to negotiate with you or offer you anything. And the whole belief that is now circulated

is that the corporation does not want to, is not able to, and cannot offer us anything better.

then gigification raises less than inflation, cuts to our pension, cuts to our benefits.

That mentality has sunk in, but people don't seem to realize that the only reason the corporation

refused to negotiate for so long was because they knew they didn't have to. They knew Big

Brother was gonna step in and send the little peons back to work, and they would just play,

you know, the good guy. and the whole thing. So yes, it's a mixed bag. It's a mixed bag.

Everyone's furious, to be clear. People are furious. They're furious that we were standing

on those picket lines in the snow, in the rain for five weeks, living off of, if you picketed

it every day, $280 a week from the union. Most people couldn't pick it every day. And it's

not sustainable. You can't live that way. You can't pay rent. You can't make your student

loan payments. You can't make your debt payments you it's uh, it's backbreaking So yeah people

are in both camps people are like we have to and other people less so not I imagine that's

the case with almost any strike, right, but That is um, that was gut-wrenching to actually

hear you say that You may not ever get another negotiated contract again. That hit hard. I

don't think I viewed it that way, but you make the argument and it's kind of hard. I mean,

it's not like it was even this detailed argument. I mean, if you just simply look at the behavior,

even provincially, trying to use the notwithstanding clause to order. workers back. It's like they

are doing everything possible to simply make unions obsolete. Like you can exist, but I

won't allow you to be effective in any way. Now that it's Tuesday and some folks are back

to work, some folks are holding the line. I think a lot of the lines that are being held

are being called community lines, that they're not just Cup W workers. I mean, the whole time

it shouldn't have been just Cup W workers. for the record, even I took my kids to the line

for heaven's sake. But it's, you know, I saw footage coming from Richmond showing a processing

plant there being held by the steelworkers. I saw BCGU and some other usual suspects out

in BC. So it's a mixed bag today. How do you wish... Okay, let's say we had to go through

this band-aid part of ordering y'all back to work because like it was expected. Right? Were

we not preparing for this as... especially the militant members? Like stealing yourself is

one thing, but then making a plan to hold the lines regardless. Yeah, for sure. Obviously,

I would have preferred we'd have a different outcome than we got, which was to, on the face

of it, capitulate to the... illegal back to work orders of the CIRB, the unelected CIRB.

To speak to what some of the militants were doing up until this point, we had an excellent

group of people called Posties Ready to Defy trying to circulate the message that defiance

was going to be necessary at some point in our negotiations. I think that was kind of tried

to be headed off by the liberals who said, no, that's not going to happen. that's not gonna

happen, that's not gonna happen, it's gonna happen, you know? But so our members in Edmonton

managed to get a motion passed through their local in order to hold votes on the picket

line as to whether we would defy, from my understanding those votes passed at 70% that they would defy.

However, their union leadership also refused to go against the NEB. So there was a large...

movement towards defiance and I circulated the memorandums from that line across our own picket

line, preparing people for defiance. But the overwhelming sentiment amongst a lot of people

is that defiance means we get arrested, defiance means we get fines, and a lot of people are

fearful of that. Obviously we saw QP go in 22. continue to hold their lines against the threat

of fines. And I don't believe any fines were ever leveled in the end, but it's hard to convince

people of this, that the workers really ultimately are the ones that have the power and not the

courts. So we've tried to push through our own local and so forth motions to similar effects,

but the engagement. that happens at locals. I don't wanna speak badly of locals in general,

but it's a very bureaucratic procedure. And a lot of workers aren't knowledgeable or prepared

to fight a bureaucratic battle in the way that some long time members of a local might be.

So it's an uphill battle for rank and file workers, but it's not insurmountable. And it's not one

that I'm prepared to say we've lost. We have now a little less than six months until we

are negotiating again, whatever that means. And obviously, you know, we remain, from my

point of view, in a legal strike position up until that point. So now I think the push is

really on to get workers to see that, you know, this is our do or die moment. And the entire

working... class in this country is looking to us for leadership because we saw the longshoremen,

the rail workers, all face the same attacks and get forced into arbitration. But the Liberal

government has left a door open here and hopefully not a door that, you know, is closed by a coming

conservative government, which I don't want to be pessimistic, which is, I don't know,

is that is a really different difference? But anyway, the Liberal government has left a door

here. for postal workers to organize, to build momentum, and to change what has become a defeat

and turn it into a victory. Because where we are at now is not a good position to be in.

We have workers who are desperate. We have workers who have lost faith in their union leadership.

But it should also be clear that those same workers have a tremendous opportunity, as does

the union leadership. which I will not count myself as someone who's lost faith in the union

leadership. But I understand the pragmatic reasons why the decisions that were made were made,

but I will say that we have a door open to us, and all that's left for us now is to walk through

that door. Strike through that door. So just to clarify, I heard you correctly. You consider

yourselves in a legal strike position up until I think it's May? I believe that the union

as of right now has been illegally put into a position to surrender our strike lines by

the CIRB. Don't believe that position is constitutional. not to appeal to liberal constitutionality,

but I don't believe that it is. We took a 95% strike vote. That strike vote continues to

stand. And just because the liberals think that they can walk over the democratic rights of

the workers, it is my point of view that the workers are still very much in a strike position.

All that we need to do is to build the organization necessary to seize that moment. Well, I'm here

for that. I'm reading one of the articles there this morning. It describes, the Canada Post

statement there implies that the union has agreed to some of the points, the order. Is that correct?

Or is that just them playing a PR game? It's my point, again, this is all my point of view.

I haven't seen any indication that the union has agreed to any of what has been said. been

transpired in the CIRB. Um, indeed quite the opposite. Um, what is being circulated amongst

union leadership, not just the national executive board, but amongst other high ranking members

of our union. Don't want to obviously give our names, but my point of view on that is that

a lot of people consider what has happened to us to be a fundamental trampling of our constitutional

rights and Canada Post and the bourgeois meet corporate media. Lie a lot. I feel recall when

our strikes started it was Canada Post was saying we're preparing for a Rotating strike and that's

just what the news Repeated that we're having a rotating strike the news in Canada Post like

to invent narratives that they want to be true So they want it to be true that the Union has

accepted this illegal trampling of our rights Every indication that I have seen is that the

Union has not in any way accepted the illegal trampling of our rights, but understandably

is put into a position where they need to be pragmatic on how they proceed. To say I'm pulling

for you folks is an understatement because you said it yourself that we're looking, I mean,

I'm not even a unionized worker and I'm looking to you folks for leadership and courage and

cup W, I mean. I said it to the folks we visited on the line. I go, you guys are like the union

we point to when we're trying to explain to people the historical value of unions. Like

you enjoy this and this and this because of postal workers striking. And it is it's one

of those kind of unions where if they can't do it, right, if they can't get a negotiated

deal. you know, is that a pivotal moment for the Canadian labor movement? And we keep getting

closer and closer to realizing that there is an actual Canadian labor movement at some of

these community lines being held. I would like to see more of this. This should, this shouldn't

just be a cup W issue. And it sets an awful precedent. I mean, I'll say it so you don't

have to. I mean, the other unions out there need to be prepared to hold some of these lines

and should have already been, should have already been anticipating this. And just like we asked

them to hold the encampments and they promised to, I'm getting very frustrated to see, you

know, this lack of understanding of these moments, these do or die moments that we can't let us,

can't let them pass us by. So I mean, Sarah. Pickett, Captain, Shop Steward, and you know,

a letter carrier. I very much appreciate your work here. I wish today was a different day,

but I think I'm going to sit on some of the things that you said of looking towards the

more hopeful possibilities that could come from this and that it's not over, right? We're just

kind of in a new phase of it. And it was nice to watch people hold. hold a picket line after

being ordered back to work. I mean, I'll just keep replaying some of those videos. Maybe

you could go, I don't know if there's one in Ontario being held, but I think maybe you should

go visit it if it's possible, even if it's virtually. Because yeah, the work matters still, for sure.

Thank you very much, Sarah. Thank you. That is a wrap on another episode of Blueprints

of Disruption. Thank you for joining us. If you'd like to help us continue disrupting the

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No breaks, no vacation, no 40 hour week. He'd say take it or leave it and throw you out on

the street. Kids working in sweatshops all day long. No one dared to question it. I'd say

it was wrong. Two workers from unions stood up for what's right and gave to us all a much

better life. Unions are the reason there's a minimum wage Weekends, vacations, lunch breaks,

sick days Organized labor made all this come true Don't ever forget what unions did for

you Safe work and conditions, health benefits too Unimportant insurance to help you get through

Bad times and good times when we are as one There is no challenge we can't overcome Cause

unions are the reason there's a minimum wage Weekends, vacations, lunch breaks and sick

days Organized labor made all this come true Don't ever forget what unions did for you

We're in a time that has turned back around. Once again the rich are trying to keep workers

down. Right to work for less, Matches stay right, We deserve more respect.

We're asking Congress to help our pension plan, but it's not a bailout, just a help in hand.

We'll pay it back and pay it forward too, and keep workers working, that's what unions do.

Because unions are the reason there's a minimum wage. Weekends, vacations, lunch breaks, and

sick days.

Don't ever forget, I have you in my stand.

We must never forget what you have done for us.