CUPW may be just the beginning…
This is about austerity – undermining public services through aggressive privatization and job cuts under the pretext of reducing deficits. Canada Post wants to cut 7000 jobs.
This is about keeping our public services public. Harper’s been planning to privatize and/or sell off crown corporations including Canada Post since as early as 2009. Now that Harper has his majority, popular opposition is essential to prevent this. This is why it is all the more important that we stand with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) as they hold the line against austerity. And this is why we need to be right there with them.
News reports in February 2009 revealed Harper’s plans to start a fire sale of a long list of Crown corporations:
The kind of austerity measures Harper wants to bring to Canada have been met with mass opposition across Europe. And yet after a meeting with Greek officials (who have faced some of the most widespread protests against austerity), Prime Minister Harper said “They went through with minister Clement and I in great detail the measures that have been undertaken” in Greece. Harper’s message is loud and clear: the attack on public services is about to begin.
And it starts with CUPW.
People have been deeply concerned about Harper’s hidden agenda. This is the beginning of that agenda coming out into the open. Whether or not Harper succeeds is up to us. The postal workers’ struggle is one for us all.
