Trump’s tariffs threaten tens of thousands of jobs across North America. They are aimed at economically weakening Washington’s northern neighbour to prepare the way for Canada’s annexation as the 51st state of the US.
Canada Post strikers are determined to wage a struggle. But they are being hamstrung by the disastrous policies of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and Canadian Labour Congress, which are forcing the workers to stand alone against the combined strength of corporate Canada and its bought-and-paid-for political representatives.
Dozens of workers have written to the PWRFC to ask questions, sign up for the WSWS postal workers newsletter, and share their experiences in the workplace. We encourage all postal workers to write to canadapostworkersrfc@gmail.com with their contributions.
The Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee recently held its founding meeting. Organized independently of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) bureaucracy, the PWRFC aims to mobilize postal workers in a political struggle against the corporatist alliance between management, the union apparatus and the government.
“Bogdan’s imprisonment is a threat to workers in Canada who oppose the war to be quiet, but we will not be silenced. His arrest also tears apart the lies of the imperialist powers justifying their war of aggression against Russia and using the working class of Ukraine as cannon fodder for the predatory interests of imperialism.”
Canadian imperialism has maintained a decades-long relationship with far-right Ukrainian nationalists, including the political descendants of Nazi collaborators during World War II. It is these forces that make up the backbone of the Ukrainian regime that is persecuting comrade Bogdan.
At a meeting organized on Sunday, April 14 with the support of the World Socialist Web Site, a group of Canada Post workers passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Postal Workers Rank-and-file Committee.
The early Monday morning job action fit the classic definition of a “Hollywood strike”—a stunt pulled by the bureaucracy to create the illusion among rank-and-file workers that Unifor President Payne and Local 444 President Cassidy had “fought hard” to secure the miserable “pattern” agreement.
On October 15, 2023, the Young Guard of Bolshevik Leninists, a Trotskyist youth organization in the former Soviet Union, celebrated the centenary of the emergence of the Left Opposition with a meeting that was attended by David North, the chairperson of the Socialist Equality Party (US) and the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site.
Workers in New Zealand described the soaring cost of living and opposed the Labour and National Parties’ support for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Hundreds of reps and workers have been abandoned and “The call by our committee for a fightback has resonated at mail centres, delivery and sorting offices up and down the country.”
“Developments in the US with UAW bureaucracy shows that irrespective of where they live workers face the same situation.” – Renault-Nissan worker
“I've never seen such a mass exodus of highly capable, long term carriers.” one postal worker said. “What other company just decided they think you're making too much money and just takes it out of your pay?!”
“I am a very upset millennial, who just wants to buy a house and start a family,” one worker told the WSWS. “I have stood by my union proudly as they talked such big game, only to read how poor of a contract they are now celebrating with teary eyes.”
The wide turnout, with more than 300 registered, was a sign of growing opposition to the contract, which contains substandard wage increases and freezes to pension contributions for workers throughout much of the US.
A postal worker explained, “We must not stop at the end of the vote. This is the beginning of a rank-and-file movement. The fact we exist and are here is enough to unsettle the bureaucrats.”
Teachers opposing the Conservative government’s below-inflation pay offer spoke with WSWS reporters about the broader crisis in public education.
The World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) is publishing a further round-up of comments received from UK postal workers condemning the Communication Workers Union sell-out deal with Royal Mail.
“To defeat this line-up requires more than a No vote”, Robson insisted. A genuine rank-and-file insurgency must challenge the profit dictates of Royal Mail shareholders.
Royal Mail workers are continuing to speak out against the brutal work regime being enforced by the company and the Communication Workers Union.
