wildcat strike in Winnipeg

LaborNotes

Spontaneous release day, done by 70 Workers Winnipeg positions against injuries caused by mechanization initiative, raises a wave of solidarity in the country and abroad. This wildcat strike (in this case means wild without legal framework) shows the strength that can spring from simple acts of direct action.

The release of 22 November is the latest twist of a conflict that already rotting for months. Canada Post has launched a restructuring pilot project last April in Winnipeg, the first site to test a modernization initiative nearly 2 billion. This should increase productivity and to save money at the Crown corporation when implanted across Canada.

But the management did not consult the workers before introducing the new system, now denounced because it causes injury and a huge family stress on the factors that have to work late into the night to finish their delivery route.

“The new machines rank 80% some mail”, said Bob Tire, local president of Canada Post, “while the 20% remaining to be sorted old, either because the format is incompatible with the machines, or because the address is unreadable. These two ways of sorting are not problematic, provided that the factors are allowed to put both batteries letter and parcels in the same package before leaving the sorting center to make their way.”

But management insists that the factors immediately leave the sorting center, forcing them to manage two separate packets of letters and parcels, and often.

“We walk with all kinds of packages of different shapes and weight balance in our arms, and other packages in hands,”, says Tire. “It blinds us to our feet. We can not see what is running on, in a business where we are forced to climb stairs all day. We must hold our rigid arms and hold balan packets while walking. So there were many falls and neck injuries, shoulders and arms.”

A worker draws the line

After a number of injury problems due to this new way of working, the first level managers have released the pressure and allowed workers to again merge the packages of letters and parcels in one package. But on Monday morning 22 November, the sorting center southwest of Winnipeg, management has taken a firm stand: or factors using the new method, or disciplinary action will be taken.

A worker then refused. He told his boss: “I tried it and I stumbled a few times. You're going to send me home, because I did not do it.”

Management responded immediately with a suspension of 5 days. In ten minutes, the word had gone around the sorting office, and about 40 Workers held a meeting on the spot in the parking lot. They all decided to go home, invoking their right to refuse unsafe work. When workers from the second shift arrived on site in the afternoon, they decided to do the same.

Canadian media (but not those in Quebec) covered the wildcat strike, and the story quickly spread among the members of CUPW (Canadian Union of Postal Workers), especially through a blog, The workers struggle with the modern post. In a week, the blog has received 50 000 visits and has become a communication tool for workers, with workers and premises across the country are leaving messages of solidarity, organizing actions and supports posting photos of these actions on the blog. Support even came from abroad.

Tuesday, the workers, fearing for their jobs, returned to work and try somehow to deliver mail in conditions that remain dangerous. Workers who participated in the wildcat strike saw themselves imposed a five-day suspension, Applicable only if these workers are involved again in a similar release in the next six months.

Turn your lights for factors

Local Winnipeg launched a campaign “Turn your lights for factors” to raise awareness. The new delivery system, combined with a constant lack of manpower, has indeed created stacks and stacks delay in mail sorting center and postal deposits.

The workers selected neighborhoods where the mail was the latest, and went door-to-door, distributing bulbs and leaflets to residents. The public is invited to show its support to the factors leaving them lit outdoor light, because with the new system, finnissent roads so late that it is night. The public is also invited to contact their MP and Canada Post. Edmonton Postal Workers have quickly joined the campaign, also distributing leaflets and bulbs to residents of their road.

Impacts on national négocations

While Winnipeg workers challenging the restructuring work, CUPW is in full national negotiations with Canada Post to renew the employment contract of 54 000 Postal workers. Health and safety issues – including the right to deliver mail into a single packet – are at the center of discussions. The new system is now introduced in Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, and soon established across Canada over the next year.

But other topics are on the table spans. Canada Post has cut about 1800 full-time jobs since 2009, mainly through attrition. Temporary workers have also been cut. And as in many other industries, the employer asks orphan clauses that would cut third salaries and benefits for new employees. But besides these negotiations for the new contract, positions of service are constantly blows and degrade, mainly in rural areas.

CUPW held a national day of action on 25 November, with rallies across the country. These actions have turned spontaneously in solidarity rallies with the Winnipeg workers. As could be read on a bannnière deployed in a post office in St. John's, Newfoundland: “We our eyes are Winnipeg”.