President's Blog - June 24, 2016

Crunch time! Everywhere, talk is buzzing of a lockout or a strike. This time around, the terrain seems to have shifted, thanks to all the good work we did with our Save Canada Post campaign. Many in our communities support us. They know Canada Post is on a needless attack against postal workers and our Union, they value public postal service, and they support our fight because it’s their fight too. I encourage you to find creative ways to reach out to your communities and keep that support going because we need it.

Postal workers are shaking up the shop floors, from the legendary postie trains to mass coffee breaks, black t-shirt days, mysterious port-a-potties turning up at plants and, of course, turnouts at our strike votes. Trust me: management is feeling the pressure. We need to keep bringing it to them until they come to their senses and negotiate fairly.

On Wednesday, June 22^nd, we held a press conference in Ottawa with our legendary former CUPW president, Brother Jean Claude Parrot, to announce the formation of a national organization for retired postal workers. Retirees have been working since Convention last year to make this happen. We are sending a letter to 24,000 retired postal workers across the country.  Generations of postal workers before us fought for decent pensions for all.  Every worker should have the right to retire with dignity.  Now as CPC threatens to stick postal workers with a defined contribution pension plan for all future service, we are calling on retirees to join the struggle to defend pensions.

Events are now unfolding quickly as the pace of negotiations picks up. Please stay informed by signing up for our e-digest and monitoring our bulletins. Do your part to keep your fellow workers informed. We must keep our morale up, stay mobilized and be ready! Our futures are at stake.