By Dave McKee
After weeks of moaning that striking postal workers are “cancelling Christmas,” Canada Post got an early gift from the federal government when Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon intervened to effectively order the workers back to work.
Using Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, MacKinnon on December 13 asked the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to determine if the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and Canada Post can negotiate a tentative agreement in the very near future. If the CIRB decides they cannot, it will order postal workers back to work.
Ottawa has used Section 107 repeatedly in recent months to override workers’ rights to bargain collectively and to strike. These include imposing binding arbitration against port workers in BC, Montreal and Quebec City in November, and against rail workers at CN and CPKC in August.
In all of those cases, as well as with Canada Post, employers have refused to bargain in good faith because they know that the federal government will intervene on their behalf and send negotiations to binding arbitration, which typically imposes a minimal contract that does not address major issues.
Responding to government intervention against port workers in November, Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) president Bea Bruske called the decision to impose binding arbitration “a troubling step that undermines the fundamental rights of workers and underscores the growing economic unfairness in this country.” She went on to say that “by resorting to binding arbitration under section 107, the government is sending a dangerous message: employers can bypass meaningful negotiations, lock out their workers, and wait for political intervention to secure a more favourable deal.”
On December 13, CUPW issued a statement saying it “denounces in the strongest terms this assault on our constitutionally protected right to collectively bargain and to strike.”
In a second statement on the same day, the union said, “This order continues a deeply troubling pattern in which successive federal governments have used back-to-work legislation or, in this case, its arbitrary powers to let employers off the hook from bargaining in good faith. What employer would move on anything when they know the government will bail them out? Once again, the government has chosen capital over workers by taking away our leverage to get a good deal.”
CUPW points out that while its 55,000 members have been picketing for weeks, Canada Post has sat on the union’s latest offer for five days without responding. So, when the CIRB asks if the union and corporation can negotiate a deal soon, the answer is clearly no. But rather than suspending workers’ right to bargain and strike, Ottawa should insist that Canada Post – a federal crown corporation that is responsible to the government – return to the table and negotiate in good faith.
Solidarity in action can defeat attack on labour rights
During negotiations with Canada Post in 2018, CUPW launched a series of rotating strikes at locations across Canada, to pressure the corporation into providing a decent offer. Then, as now, they were forced back to work by federal legislation.
But that was not the end of the struggle. Recognizing the fundamental injustice and attack on labour rights, other unions across the country organized picket lines at Canada Post facilities, to support postal workers and the right to strike. Through the action of these solidarity pickets, processing centres and sorting and distribution plants were effectively closed in major cities across Canada.
This is precisely the kind of solidarity in action needed today. The federal government’s attacks on workers’ rights – at ports in BC and Quebec, at CN and CPKC rail, and now at Canada Post – show clearly its willingness to intervene to suppress labour and give yet another leg up to corporations. The leadership at the CLC, its provincial federations and its affiliated unions are called upon to mobilize and build resistance to these attacks.
An injury to one is an injury to all!
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