Readers, contributors and supporters sent in photos to RankandFile.ca of this year’s Labour Day celebrations from around the country (we also used photos, with credit, from Twitter and Facebook). We present you a photo essay of labour day 2014 from west to east:
Picket Tory Minister to Defend Postal Services
All Out September 20!
by Barry Weisleder
Momentum is growing towards a monster mass picket and rally to defend Canada’s postal services. The protest, set for Saturday, September 20, is directed against Canada Post Corporation plans to terminate home mail delivery. It will be held outside the Toronto constituency office of Conservative Federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver at 511 Lawrence Avenue West.
Organizations endorsing the September 20 mass picket now include the Canadian Labour Congress, Ontario Federation of Labour, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Ontario, Public Service Alliance of Canada-Ontario, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Toronto and York Region Labour Council, Peel District Labour Council, CUPE Airline Division, CUPE Local 3903, Queer Ontario, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, NDP Socialist Caucus, Toronto-Danforth NDP, Communist Party of Canada, International Socialists, and Socialist Action / Ligue pour l’Action socialiste.
Supporters distributed over 3,500 full-colour leaflets publicizing the upcoming rally during the massive Toronto Labour Day parade.
This effort comes on the heels of a successful picket convened on a very cold March 15 at the same MP office site.
The September 20 speakers’ list now includes CUPW National President Denis Lemelin, CLC V.P. Marie Clarke Walker, OFL President Sid Ryan, OPSEU V.P. Myles Magner, Sharon DeSousa, V.P. of PSAC-Ontario, former CAW President Buzz Hargrove, and representatives of other endorsing organizations.
The aim of the protest is to compel the Conservative federal
government and Canada Post Corporation to reverse plans to end home mail delivery, eliminate thousands of jobs in the postal service, and raise the price of postage.
The scheme to degrade postal services, to alienate the public towards the post office, serves the goal of gutting the federal public sector. Within that framework, the rulers strive to trash good jobs, slash postal workers’ pensions, and break a progressive, democratic union. It is a road that leads to selling the most profitable parts of Canada Post to private sector vultures.
This brazen assault must be stopped. It is a watershed moment for public services and for the workers’ movement across the Canadian state. The need for public resistance is urgent. Protest activity is developing across the country, with rallies, pickets and town hall meetings. Many municipal governments, including Toronto’s City Council, have voted to oppose the replacement of home mail delivery with collective mega-mail boxes.
September 20 is part of that resistence. Rallies are planned to occur in three cities in addition to Toronto. The message to Eglinton-Lawrence MP Joe Oliver, the Tory Minister of Finance, is that his Conservative federal budget which aims to slash jobs and kill vital public services, while pampering the corporate elite, is unacceptable.
Joe Oliver voted in Parliament against the New Democratic Party motion to maintain door-to-door mail delivery. Seniors and people with mobility problems strongly oppose being forced to collect their mail at a so-called ‘community mail box’, many blocks from home, under all kinds of weather conditions.
The resulting elimination of up to 8,000 letter carrier jobs would be a serious blow to young people and to many others seeking decent-paying employment in a time of great economic stress.
Canada Post is not in debt. It made a profit in 18 of the past 19 years – the exception being 2011, when CPC locked out its employees. And it could be even more profitable as a public asset if it provided banking services at postal outlets across the country. Canada Post and the Tory government suppressed a study that shows how providing banking and other services is the way forward. To the consternation of the vast majority of Canadians, the Tories are stealing workers’ pensions, while cutting vital jobs and services.
Reeling from the public backlash, Canada Post Corporation laughingly offered to provide home mail delivery to people who submit a doctor’s note attesting to a disability – until the Canadian Medical Association told CPC to get lost.
If Canada Post CEO Deepak Chopra, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper cannot run a postal service to meet human needs, they should step aside. Let postal workers show how to run the service – under workers’ control.
Take notice Deepak Chopra, Joe Oliver and Stephen Harper: This fight has just begun. Across the country you are facing a rising torrent of opposition to the placement of mega-mail boxes in every city and town. We will not stop fighting your cuts until we reverse them. We will not stop campaigning until we remove you.