Please support fired CUPW Steward & IWW Organizer

IWW.org Editor — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:39:24 +0000

(Also available on Facebook if you’d rather.)

Reinstate postal worker shop steward.

Edmonton CUPW Shop Steward and IWW organizer Nick Drieger has been fired after many years of service at Canada Post. He was fired due to honking his horn at an action near Occupy Edmonton, who were not allowed on the university campus at the time.

His termination was based on

Attitude towards police.
A ticket for stunting (honking his horn).
Being out of his delivery area.
Activity on a wild cat strike when he was on vacation.

The plan for Tuesday February 14th is to fill their managers emails with letters of outrage over the conduct of firing this worker based on these charges.Thank you, solidarity, and lets fight to win. An injury to one is an injury to all.

Please begin sending emails and letters to the following people in response to Nick Driedger’s termination.

Wesam Haymour
Title:SPT TRANSPORTATION
Location: 9808 103 A AVE, T5J 2T6
Edmonton Alberta
Email: [email protected]">[email protected]

Brenda Young
Title MGR SHIFT
Location:12135 149 ST, T5L 5H2
Edmonton Alberta
Email: [email protected]">[email protected]

Robert Mccutcheon
Title DIR PLANT OPERATIONS
Location: 12135 149 ST T5L 5H2
Edmonton Alberta
Email: [email protected]">[email protected]

Azam Bacchus
Title: OFFICER OF LABOUR RELATIONS
Location: 12135- 149 ST T5L 5H2
Edmonton Alberta
Email: [email protected]">[email protected]

SAMPLE LETTER:

To: ________________

I am writing out of concern over the treatment of Shop Steward Nick Driedger, who has recently been dismissed. It is my understanding that Mr Nick Driedger advances the welfare and safety of his fellow workers in this role. It is hard to believe that someone as honest, positive, and hard working as Nick should be dismissed, especially in light of the charge discussed below.

Mr Nick Driedger has been accused of stunting, a charge of which he has not been found guilty. According to eyewitness testimony, he was merely honking his horn, which could only make him more visible as he drove through an area with many police and protestors. Also, according to eyewitnesses, he ceased after hearing shouting from the officers in question. The eyewitness testimony in his favour is substantial, and it is disturbing that Canada Post Corporation would find Nick Driedger guilty in advance of the verdict of a court of law.

I, ____________________ request that Nick Driedger be reinstated as a full time mail service courier with no harm to his seniority. I also request that any targeting of him due to his activities as a CUPW shop steward come to an immediate end.

Pushing the envelope: Postal workers’ struggles with Canada Post and their union over the last year

IWW.org Editor — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 06:52:41 +0000

Disclaimer - The opinions of the author do not necessarily match those of the IWW. The image pictured to the right did not appear in the original article, we have added it here to provide a visual perspective. This article is reposted in accordance to Fair Use guidelines.

By Erin Hudson - The McGill Daily, September 2010

On November 22, 2010, nine weeks after a new, arduous mail delivery system was introduced to Winnipeg, postal workers simply walked off the job. They had the consent of neither Canada Post nor their union leadership.

This is how Bob Tyre, president of the union’s Winnipeg branch, tells it: “One of our temporary workers said, ‘I can’t do the new method. I’m more than happy to do work in another depot – I’ll deliver the old way – but this new way is too much for me and I can’t do it.’ So they suspended him on the spot and that angered the building. We had four letter carrier depots in that building together. When the boss wouldn’t back off, well, then, they walked out for a day.”

The walkout would set the stage for six months of workers’ struggles, culminating in this summer’s mail strike. But the walkout would also inspire some workers to break with their union’s powerful National Executive and to question the future of unions. From November 2010 to June 2011, anarchism arrived at the post office.

Last fall, Canada Post Corporation (CPC) introduced the Modern Post – a new method of delivering mail that would begin the transformation Canada Post believes they need in order to modernize, become financially sustainable, and maintain relevance in the digital age where mail volume per address is decreasing.

The Modern Post plans to motorize letter carriers and implement a two-bundle carrying method. The two-bundle system will consist of one bundle of presequenced mail to hold on the forearm, and a second bundle of flyers to be handed out at each point of call. Instead of letter carriers sorting their mail in the plant, machines will sequence the majority of mail, which means that letter carriers will spend more time on delivery routes.

Parcel delivery drivers will be almost completely eliminated. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) estimates that in Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, and Scarborough, 306 jobs will be cut as a result of the new system.

Outside a union meeting in Montreal, delivery agent Denis Auger Delegue said this is his first bad year at the post office in 32 years.

Modern Post was first implemented in Winnipeg’s Southwest and Northeast depots. The system came in two waves, beginning the transition on September 20, and completing it on October 18.

On November 4, following a court decision prohibiting workers from refusing to work under Modern Post, the CUPW – which represents all Canadian postal workers – released a web bulletin weighing in on the matter. Their message: the union’s collective agreement, which was set to expire at the end of January 2011, would not protect workers who walked off the job to protest the Modern Post.

With little concrete action taken by CUPW’s National Executive, workers facing the daily challenges of the Modern Post took matters into their own hands.

Industrial Workers of the World - Canadian Regional Organizing Committee

Please support fired CUPW Steward & IWW Organizer

Pushing the envelope: Postal workers’ struggles with Canada Post and their union over the last year