To get involved in the Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee, which fights for workers to seize control of their struggle from the pro-company CUPW apparatus, fill out the form at the end of this article or email: canadapostworkersrfc@gmail.com.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Our struggle is in grave danger! If we don’t actively resist the Canadian Union of Postal Workers’ sabotage and fight to mobilize the full power of the working class in defence of public services and against the Amazon-ification of work, Canada Post and the Carney-led Liberal government will impose—by hook or by crook— new contracts that pave the way for massive job cuts, dramatically increased workloads, and the dismantling of the post office.

Canada Post is demanding a government-forced vote on its “final contract offer.” That offer amounts to putting a noose around our collective necks. It would impose “dynamic routing” across the country, which would see AI intensify workloads by adjusting our routes on a daily basis; and introduce two new categories of “flexible” part-time workers to provide weekend delivery and slash full-time employment and overtime.

In the face of this frontal assault, CUPW has raised the white flag of surrender.

Last December, the CUPW bureaucrats enforced the Liberal government’s patently illegal use of Section 107 of the Labour Code to outlaw our strike. They ordered us to return to work after 32 days on the picket lines, without workers having any say. We were isolated and kept in the dark, with no mass meetings called to debate the way forward, precisely because CUPW President Jan Simpson and the rest of the National Executive Board knew there was mass rank-and-file support for defying the hated Trudeau-led Liberal government’s strikebreaking order and appealing for working class support.

Now—once again behind our backs and without any input from the membership—CUPW wants to surrender our right to strike. The union bureaucracy wants to stop us from opposing Canada Post and corporate Canada’s assault on our jobs and working conditions altogether.

CUPW is calling on the Liberal government to impose binding arbitration. That would mean the contracts for all 55,000 urban and rural postal workers will be dictated by a “third party” arbitrator. That is, by a pro-big business “labour relations” specialist committed to returning the post office to “profitability” according to the logic of capitalism. In other words, at our expense and by dismantling what remains of the post office as a public service.

We would legally be bound hand and foot to the arbitrator-imposed concessionary contracts, without even the right to vote on, approve or reject our terms of employment.

Postal workers have a long experience with government-imposed binding arbitration. Most recently, it was the mechanism used to extort or impose by fiat sweeping concessions from us after the Harper Conservative government in 2011 and then the Trudeau Liberal government in 2018 illegalized our strikes.

As for today, no one should be under any illusion. The first draft of the arbitrator’s award has already been written by long-time federal government mediator William Kaplan, in the form of the Industrial Inquiry Commission (IIC) report. Mandated by the government when it illegalized our strike last December, the IIC did exactly what the government and corporate Canada intended it to do. The IIC called for ending all home mail delivery, closing more rural post offices, expanding the use of privately franchised stores, and ending “trapped time,” which guarantees full-time letter carriers a full day’s pay even when we finish our routes early.

Given all this, can anyone be surprised that the Liberal government, now led by the central banker and austerity advocate Mark Carney, has welcomed CUPW’s call for binding arbitration?

At Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu’s request, contract negotiations resumed Thursday. In accordance with her instructions, Canada Post and CUPW exchanged proposals about what the terms of reference and timelines will be, if and when, binding arbitration is imposed.

Hajdu and the Liberal government are playing coy, claiming their preference is still for a “negotiated settlement.” But no one should be in any doubt. The fix is in.

Unless workers intervene, the government, citing CUPW and the NDP’s support for binding arbitration, will soon use this mechanism to strip us of the right to strike, and impose savage contract concessions. Possibly as early as next week.

Workers must draw a balance sheet—at every point CUPW has isolated and sabotaged our struggle. After strangling our national strike, they hailed the IIC as a great democratic forum where our voices would be heard. Then, they went even further by sitting down with Steve MacKinnon—the Labour Minister who banned our strike—to plan Canada’s trade war measures in retaliation to Trump.

We have shown tremendous militancy throughout our struggle, but the CUPW leadership has succeeded to date in repeatedly weakening our position. This is why it is high time for us to take the conduct of our contract fight into our own hands through the building of a network of rank-and-file committees at every depot and sorting facility under the leadership of the PWRFC.

Through our rank-and-file committees, we can develop an alternative strategy—one based on the broadest possible mobilization of the working class behind us in an industrial and political fight. The issues at the heart of our struggle are of vital concern to all workers. They include the right to strike, the defence of public services, and the use of AI to ensure good-paying, secure jobs for all, not increased worker-exploitation. Winning this fight isn’t just about defeating Canada Post management, but big business as a whole and the Liberal government that stands behind it.

We must explain to all workers that the ruling class wants to impose a decisive defeat on us to set an example for the onslaught they are preparing across the board as they impose policies of capitalist austerity and war. To fund tens of billions per year in additional military spending, they want to gut public services, and slash workers’ pay and benefits. We must fight to counterpose to this capitalist logic a socialist program for jobs, public services, and worker rights for all.

There is no time to lose! If you agree with this program, we urgently appeal to you to contact the PWRFC today and begin constructing a new rank-and-file leadership at your workplace and beyond.