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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, Postie's Power - Interview﻿</title>﻿

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﻿<b﻿>﻿Posties' Power

﻿<br﻿>﻿</b>﻿</font>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


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﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, December 1997 - January 1998﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿</center>﻿


﻿<font﻿ ﻿size="1"﻿>﻿As postal workers across Canada went on strike against the neo-liberal downsizing of the postal service, Eddie Martinez, of the New Socialist Edmonton Branch spoke to Greg McMaster of CUPW about his impressions of the strike thus far.﻿</font>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


﻿<b﻿>﻿What are the issues of the strike?

﻿</b>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

-The issues are the creation of full-time jobs in the processing plants, by conversion of temporary, part-time and overtime hours. The design of letter carrier routes that can be finished in an eight hour day, and wage increases that would keep up with the cost of living.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<b﻿>﻿What has been CUPW's activities here in Edmonton?

﻿</b>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

-Well, we've had a program of activities over, more than the past year, last fall against the layoffs of the admail workers, and then in pre- paration for negotiations we've had various meetings and information pickets, and also workplace meetings. Then last week, we went on strike.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<b﻿>﻿How has cross-union solidarity with other struggles, such as with UFCW and the Maple Leaf strikers, taken shape here in Edmonton?

﻿</b>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

--We've been encouraging our members to picket with the Maple Leaf strikers and we were in attendance and spoke at their rally on saturday , and in turn they've been supporting our picket lines, for instance, at Depo 12 on 77 street and downtown at the main post office. We've also had great support from other unions that we've supported in the past, such as Safeway workers that were on strike last spring, and unions like CUPE and AUPE.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<b﻿>﻿The threat of back-to-work legislation has also been brought up recently. How has CUPW been fighting against it?

﻿</b>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

--Well, when the strike started after months of useless conciliation, that was the first time the corporation had any real incentive to negotiate. They were losing customers and revenue, before the strike, and of course when it started. And the only time since negotiations began in April, that any progress was actually made, and the minute the Minister for Canada Post (Alfonso) Gagliano started yapping off on Friday about anti-strike legislation, negotiations ground to a halt as the corporation didn't have any incentive to move on anything. So we shifted our focus to political protests against government interventions in collective bargaining, and we had on Nov.24 a large picket line in Edmonton around Justice Minister Anne McLellan's office, about 500 people, and we sent off signatures from that picket line of 412 members to Anne McLellan's office in Ottawa urging them to negotiate, not legislate. And at the same time as that, our mem- bers in other centres occupied the offices of Reform M.P.s' who've been clamouring for legislation like Preston Manning in Calgary and Jim Gouk in Nelson. In Ottawa, we had a national rally at (Canada Post Minister) Gagliano's office in Hull, first of all, and then marching across the river to the Parliament building. This was attended by about 5000 members from the Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa locals.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<b﻿>﻿If the back-to-work legislation does in fact bo through, what do you plan to do then?

﻿</b>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

--Well, what we plan to do now is to convince them to keep their noses out of our negotiations and let the two sides work it out between ourselves, and we did have that desired effect yesterday(Nov.24) in that they appointed a mediator who is basically an excuse for the two sides to be able to sit down and continue negotiations. So we're hoping that that's going to reach a settlement, that's the first option. In the event of legislation, then the national executive board will determine our response based on the conditions at that time.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<b﻿>﻿With cross-union solidarity in mind, and the recent proposal by Alberta's Labour Minister to abolish our minimum wage rate here, do you see a general strike as forseeable?

﻿</b>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

--I think generalized strike action is a better way to look at it, and we've seen that in Ontario. We are seeing a bit of a labor upsurge in Alberta right now, with the two strikes going on at the same time in Edmonton, and other ones brewing in the school boards in Calgary. I think the more the merrier, the more co-ordination we can have, which has been happening through strike committees of the Edmonton District Labour Council for instance, the better off we'll be.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<b﻿>﻿Do you see the strike hindered in any way by resentment shown by the public with people not recieving unemployment checks or other mail?

﻿</b>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

--Well, the screw-up of unemployment checks by Unemployment Insurance themselves and Canada Post Management meant that these checks were not available when they were supposed to be, and this is obviously being turned, there's an attempt to turn this against us. But I think that efforts that we have made to deliver every check that was available to us has paid off in public support. We've had senior's organizations, for instance, speaking at our picket line yesterday (Nov.24)at Anne McLellan's office, and expressing their support and appreciation for our efforts to get those checks out. That was, a very interesting experience in the middle of a strike, in workers' control as well, where we went on strike one day and the next day the local executive in Edmonton basically organized the activity of the post office for a day in the delivery of, the rotation and delivery of those checks that were available went off without a hitch, without dozens and dozens of suits to oversee it.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<b﻿>﻿Could you consider the postal strike as a launching pad here in Alberta, or even in Canada to mobilize a movement against the neo-liberal programs of the provincial and federal governments?

﻿</b>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

--Well, that's definitely what our contract fight is up against, is the neo-liberal direction of the federal government. They were elected on a program of revenue generation and job creation, but since they got in, Paul Martin has had the upper hand with the program of downsizing and cutbacks. Our immediate objective is to secure a collective agreement in the face of that attack, but it is a part of an on-going struggle and I guess the way it goes from there depends on other unions, as well as ourselves.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<b﻿>﻿Do you see the fight as one that should be taken up from the union leadership, or through rank-and-file members?

﻿</b>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

--Well, it has to be both. We need a centralized, a national organization to apply an effective strategy, against the corporation and the government and we also need rank-and-file action to succeed in that and I think we have a good combination of both in this union.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Despite interference and stalling by the federal government, we've been trying to get on with the issues as soon as possible and now that that useless conciliation stages have been exhausted, we're fighting it out in the streets. That's the only time there's been any progress and that's the only time there ever will be, and the threat of legislation was exactly to put a brake on that and we've been able to hold that off for now. We'll just keep on going and see what happens.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


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