Room Magazine stands in solidarity with the more than 55,000 Canada Post workers represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers who have gone on strike. To this end, we will not be using alternate services to mail out merchandise, back issues, or copies of our most recent issue, Issue 47.4 FULL CIRCLE, until the strike has concluded.
On November 15, 2024, the CUPW started a strike for “fair wages, health and safety, the right to retire with dignity, and expansion of services at the public post office.” These are rights that Canada Post should have granted its employees initially, and furthermore Canada Post was aware of these demands for a year before the strike began. That the Canadian Union of Postal Workers had to call for a strike at all is an indictment of the employer.
Canada Post’s intimidation tactics, such as laying off striking workers, go hand-in-hand with Canadian media’s broad proliferation of anti-worker narratives. We at Room defy this demonizing of the strike and unequivocally support the CUPW members, whose efforts in the 1980s won them 17 weeks of paid maternity leave, a victory that had positive ripple impacts for working people across the country.
For ways to support the striking workers, please see the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW)’s website.