Going home...to the picket line!,

This afternoon I spent some time at "home".

Only this particular time I was at home at Toronto's South Central Postal Facility with some very special "relatives"...my brothers and sisters in the Union of Postal-Communications Employees/PSAC. They held a "picket line barbeque" with lots of folks there from the labour and social movements.

It was thirty years ago that I started working there and not too long afterwards as a naive young "20-something" began my life in the labour movement.

As a young activist, I'd been on plenty of picket lines and at plenty of demonstrations. But it was at South Central where for the first time I was on my "own" picket line back in the autumn of 1980. It was a time of double digit inflation and we were being offered single digit pay increases...so we walked out. In the end, we got that double digit pay increase.

When I look back, I owe these folks alot. They may not realize it, but they taught me alot about the practicalities of pulling folks together and taking on a rather nasty employer. The art of "people politics".

I got a chance today to reminisce with my old brother Steve. We shared coffee breaks together for years and argued about all the world's problems. We disagreed on just about everything. But there was always one thing we agreed on...fighting the bosses.

When you're organizing a people's fightback the most important thing is to look for common ground... the things we agree on. Usually the things we disagree about are really not all that important.

Of course I left Canada Post and my UPCE/PSAC membership a very long time ago. But the lessons I learned often through trial and error...and probably mostly error...will be with me forever.

Today, my "homies"...my brothers and sisters of UPCE/PSAC are in a very important fight that in the end will impact all working people in this country.

On the surface, it's a fight about sick leave. But in the bigger picture, it's a fight to maintain the little financial integrity that's left in Canada's Employment Insurance (EI) system.

The EI sick benefit system is meant as a "floor" so that those who work for smaller or less wealthy employers can at least get a minimum of 15 weeks sick pay.

Large employers like the Canada Post Corporation are expected to pay for their employees sick leave benefits.

But, Canada Post wants to dump a major share of their sick leave costs onto the publicly-funded EI system. Canada Post remains a profitable company. It can well afford to pay the costs of its employees sick leave. It doesn't need corporate welfare.

Canada Post has decided to take on its smaller bargaining units first. So UPCE/PSAC is first up at bat and has decided to take a stand. Next up, is the normally "pussycat" supervisory union, the Association of Postal Officials of Canada (APOC).

Once they've crushed these unions, Canada Post will take on their largest opponent, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).

If Canada Post succeeds in using the EI fund as a sick leave "piggy bank", it will be open season on every single group of workers in the country that has a sick leave plan.

In my "post Canada Post world", I've been watching the steady erosion of the EI system. I've dealt with I don't know how many thousand unemployed workers over the years who've seen their benefits slashed and burned by successive Liberal and Tory governments.

The most savage EI cuts were implemented by then Liberal Finance Minister Paul Martin back in the 1990's. A massive surplus was built up in the fund. Then, in Stephen Harper's last pre-election budget he pocketed the $50+ billion dollar surplus.

So for the last decade and a half, governments have been undermining the EI system. Now employers are trying to get their paws into the system and undermine it even further...at a time when most of the world is heading into a recession...and maybe even a depression.

On the backburner is another issue. Although Prime Minister Stephen Harper is making "Keynsian" noises these days, we all know that deep down inside he's a hard core Friedmanite". He'd like to privatize Canada Post. So, cutting down sick leave costs will help fatten up Canada Post for a potential buyer.

So to Tom, Steve, Dolores, Mary Lou, Diane and all my other "homies"...stay tough and hang in there! Your fight is a fight for everyone. The labour movement is behind you.

To Canada Post? Pay your own god damned sick leave! And by the way, you still owe me some money from the twenty+ year old equal pay complaint.


P.S. This post was "fueled" by a large mocha and a bottle of Steam Whistle Beer supplied by my wonderful friends at "The Last Drop Cafe"...Coxwell & Sammon in Toronto. Very friendly neighbourhood atmosphere, great coffee and free wifi...what more could you ask for?