Word: postally
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...both groups have concentrated on elite politics, but in failing to politicize their memberships, both organizations have underscored their own weaknesses. The lack of a strong political culture in Canada has to labor's relatively low political status, a state of affairs recently highlighted by the capitulation of Canadian postal workers to the federal government over the issue of the postal workers' right to strike...
Bogged down in negotiations with the federal government over a long-overdue contract, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers voted for a national strike to speed up stalled negotiations. After two days of the strike, the federal government passed back-to-work legislation with heavy penalities for disobedience. Arguing that a right that is removed when exercised is no right at all, the postal workers defied the law and fought to protect their right to strike...
Canadian labor split over the issue of supporting the postal workers' refusal to return to work. The National CLC refused to endorse the postal workers' position, while Quebec labor and a number of CLC affiliates strongly supported the strikers. The CLC refused to back the postal workers for "strategic reasons." According to Charles Bauer, CLC director of public relations, the CLC felt "at that time it was a suicidal decision to try to buck the federal government." Essentially, the CLC felt too weak to effectively rally around the beleaguered postal workers, and the national labor organization preferred not to risk...
...political failure seized the CLC and made the possibility the reality. Clearly unable to muster sufficient strength to force its way with the government, the CLC preferred to remain aloof and not dirty its hands. But behind this fear, Bauer's comments suggest that the CLC used the postal confrontation to discipline its own ranks, and to further centralize the labor movement under its direction...
Bauer complained that the postal union did not properly inform the CLC of the state of negotiations and the particular points under discussion. Bauer added that "labor solidarity is a two-way street" and argued that the postal union ought to have compromised its autonomy in negotiations in return for possible labor support on the right-to-strike question. But the general issue of the right-to-strike and the specifics of the contract discussions are clearly distinct and independent, and confusing them appears to be a mere pretense for the CLC to more directly interfere in the autonomous affairs...