Members from multiple Alberta unions rallied in support of Calgary postal workers Wednesday amid the ongoing national Canada Post strike.
Dozens of people gathered in front of a Canada Post mail distribution centre in northeast Calgary, just south of the airport, for a protest in solidarity with members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) in the city.
Negotiations between Canada Post and the union are still on hold, though both sides have said they’re working to get back to the table. Some 55,000 workers walked off the job more than two weeks ago, suspending mail service across the country.
Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, told CBC News that members from at least a dozen other unions showed up for the rally.
“The whole worker and labour community in Alberta is coming out to support them,” McGowan said.
“These workers have support from the whole city, in the whole province,” he said. “I’ve been on picket lines across this province, even up in Fort McMurray last week, when it was –28 C without wind chill. And the support that these workers are getting is incredible.”
McGowan says workers from other unions understand that in order to maintain their wages and working conditions, “sometimes you have to stand up and push back.”
“What these workers are doing is drawing a line in the sand and saying, you know, no more degradation of our work, no more low paid work, no more precarious work,” McGowan said.
Wanda Deadman, south central district representative for the United Nurses of Alberta, says members of her union showed up because they empathize with postal workers.
“These are issues that we all face… that’s why we’re unionized, right? In order to stand together in solidarity,” Deadman said. “There is strength in numbers and it’s tough for those who are out there.”
Asked about whether unions carry a negative public perception because of postal workers striking before the holidays, Deadman says she thinks it stems from a misreading of workers’ intentions when they strike.
“I wish they would understand what it is that we stand for,” she said.
Wycliffe Oduor, president of CUPW Local 710, says postal workers feel supported as other unions came to rally alongside them. (James Young/CBC)
Wycliffe Oduor, president of CUPW Local 710, says he appreciates the support from other unions as they try to get back to the negotiating table.
“It is great to see other unions who are going through the same [things], standing up with us in this struggle,” he said.
Oduor added members of CUPW in the city have got a lot of support from Calgarians, which could be heard at the rally in the form of motorists honking their horns as they drove by.
Strike’s impact grows
CUPW is asking for a 22 per cent wage increase over the next four years; Canada Post has offered half that. The two sides are also bargaining over benefits, working conditions and the company’s desire to move to seven-days-a-week delivery.
Tens of thousands of mail carriers walked off the job on Nov. 15, halting deliveries of letters and packages at the start of the holiday shipping season. With the strike entering its third week, the U.S. Postal Service has now stopped accepting Canada-bound mail for the time being.
Meanwhile, businesses and charities continue to be outspoken about the impact the Canada Post strike has had on them.
The Calgary Health Foundation said in a statement that it expects the strike to dampen its fundraising efforts, which amounted to more than $250,000 in donations last year. The foundation says it’s preparing for a substantial drop in donations because of the strike.
A spokesperson for Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service Foundation, better known as STARS, says the non-profit is concerned about not being able to receive donations through Canada Post.
STARS runs an annual donation campaign in November and December, and 65 per cent of donations from that come by mail.
Deanna Holt, education and engagement specialist at Distress Centre Calgary, says the strike has presented some unique challenges in terms of how it fundraises.
She says the Distress Centre raises 30 to 40 per cent of its funds for the whole year in November and December, and volunteers as well as staff at the crisis centre will come to individual people within Calgary city limits to pick up donation cheques.