In the past several months there has been a great upsurge of postal workers fighting back globally. Here are a few examples:
Finland: Postal Workers in Finland, who are members of the PAU union, recently achieved a new Collective Agreement. The Finnish postal company, Itella, wanted to move over 7,000 workers to night shift. After a series of negotiations, overtime bans and rotating strikes, the parties reached a settlement which severely limited increased night shift work.
Kenya: Kenyan Postal Workers are negotiating for improved wages, fair remuneration for working overtime and decent pension plan. They started a work to rule campaign, and are poised to strike.
The Netherlands: Workers at the Dutch privatized postal company, TNT, have had held a one day general strike to protest plans to layoff over 3,500 workers. They are planning on more strikes and mass rallies.
Morocco: The National Union of Postal Agencies Managers recently sat in at postal headquarters to demand decent working conditions. This led to a Memorandum of Understanding that resolved the issues.
Ireland: The Communication Workers Union in Ireland has launched a campaign "Protect Your Post" to highlight issues that are facing Irish people with the impending opening up of postal services to competition.
Spain: The Spanish postal union recently mobilized a day of action to protest the deregulation of the post office and the failure of the Spanish Post Office to settle their Collective Agreement.
USA: The American Postal Workers are negotiating for a new Collective Agreement. If they are not successful, the issues in dispute will go to binding arbitration. The APWU has been fighting to stop contracting out and put an end to bargaining unit jobs being given to management personnel. The Unites States Postal Service has proposed two tier wages, which the APWU has rejected.
Panama: The Postal Union is fighting against the recently announced decision by the Government to privatize the Post Office.
Even though CUPW members are geographically separated from these fights, we know that their struggles will benefit postal workers everywhere. The fight for respect, equality and a universal public postal service shows that solidarity knows no borders.
In solidarity,
Denis Lemelin
National President
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