This article was originally published on Recomposition Blog and was made into a pamphlet and distributed on the picket lines in Toronto during the recent lockout of workers by Canada Post.

To download a copy in pdf format suitable for printing please click here

Postal Worker Solidarity Defeats Compulsory Overtime
By Rachel Stafford

For those of us who get excited about workers sticking up for themselves and fighting the bosses, I have been pretty lucky to have been able to participate in what has turned out to be a really inspiring wave of struggle over the past few months. My national union has been in negotiations for a new collective agreement over the past seven months, but what people are agitated about on the floor isn’t up for negotiation.

By Cindy McCallum Miller
Republished from New Socialist

Canadians embrace the urban myth that postal workers strike regularly, usually at Christmas and always over money. That's as far from the truth as believing Stephen Harper is a feminist. The last pan-Canadian strike by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) was in 1997 but that will soon change.

By Greg Macdougall
Originally published at rabble.ca | May 19, 2011

Postal service in Canadian cities is in jeopardy from next week if last-minute negotiations between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) do not succeed in coming to an agreement. The possibility of a strike by the union or lockout by management comes into effect on midnight May 24, with a 72-hours notice being given before any such action is taken.

By Ajamu Nangwaya

Madison, Wisconsin, may have given organized labour - or the labouring classes - a hint at the possibility of resistance in the streets of America. Or should the credit go to the children of Caliban [1] in the streets and squares of Egypt? Can you imagine the role reversal implied by the prospect of the children of Caliban’s teaching those of Prospero, the great civilizer, the art of being human or striving for moral autonomy…collective personhood?

On Saturday January 29th several thousand people took to the streets of Hamilton in support of United Steelworkers 1005 locked out of US Steel Hamilton and against Stephen Harper's attacks on working people across the country. Dubbed “The People VS US Steel” the demonstration organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL)was the largest in Hamilton in a decade and promised to be “the Largest Anti-Harper Protest Ever.”

In the lead up to the 29th Common Cause Hamilton worked with anarchists both in Ontario and Pittsburgh to stand with USW 1005. Anarchists in Pittsburgh staged a solidarity rally outside of US Steel’s head office simultaneously with the events in Hamilton. Hamilton anarchists coordinated an Anti-Capitalist Contingent within the “The People VS US Steel” as a way to show support for 1005.

Thousands Gather in Hamilton for Largest Anti-Harper Protest Ever: “The People vs U.S. Steel” Rally at 1 p.m., Sat., Jan. 29, Hamilton City Hall

(TORONTO) -- On the eve of a federal election, more than 10,000 angry Canadians will gather in Hamilton, Ontario for the largest anti-Harper demonstration to take place. The protest will send a message to Harper as he shops for votes in Canada’s manufacturing heartland.

http://ofl.ca/index.php/news/index_in/thousands_gather_in_hamilton_for_largest_anti_harper_protest_ever_the_peopl/

December 21, 2010

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters/article/909974--call-a-spade-a-sp...

Re: Corporate greed is eroding foundations of a just society, Opinion Dec. 11

As a trade unionist, I am puzzled about the motivation behind labour movement commentator’s identification of “corporate greed” as the cause of social and economic exploitation. It is merely the symptom of philosophical liberalism that fosters an economic practice that privileges self-regarding behaviour, which is expected to lead to public virtue.

I hope that 21st century trade unionism is not shamelessly pandering to pragmatism and euphemism by using terms such as “corporate culture” or “corporate greed” instead of capitalism to name the system that produces gross inequality. Let’s call a spade a spade and not an earth-inverting horticultural implement used for digging.

by Jeff Shantz
State repression columnist

In events like the G20 protests and clampdown there emerge real opportunities for recognition and understanding that are not always so readily available behind the screen of “business as usual.” The learning curve shifts and some things become much more clear.

I'm happy to personally confirm that Local 1005 members were indeed at the police barricades with thousands of other workers on Saturday. Here's a statement by the local president.

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