Yes, it's another postal strike. Proof positive that the last time a postal strike was "settled", nothing was really settled at all.

The current postal strike, called by the Letter Carriers Union of Canada (LCUC), has been marred by threats, assaults, violent outbreaks, and thousands of dollars of damage to public and private property alike.

Violence, coercion, thuggery, intimidation, vandalism, obstruction of the law, public mischief, assaults, perpetual discontent, and plain stupidity: the inevitable results of a labour monopoly.

It's an absolute disgrace, and union members and representatives should be ashamed of themselves. But instead, they're actually proud of their actions. They proclaim "victories" whenever their violent actions result in halting postal deliveries --- and have even gone so far as to criticize police for arresting those guilty of assault and wilful damage.

We believe these actions speak for themselves. So while the letter carriers may not have been delivering our mail, they certainly have been successful in delivering a clear message to all of us.

The message?

That LCUC members have a "right" to wages well above their legitimate market value. That LCUC members have a "right" to use violence to prevent service competition. That LCUC members have a "right" to use violence to prevent labour competition. That LCUC members have a "right" to blackmail their employer and the customers on whose goodwill and support their livelihood depend.

By their actions, LCUC members have shown us that they do not respect the rights of others to receive a service they have paid for, or even to go about their own business. LCUC members have demonstrated that they believe they have a "right" to their jobs without having to earn that right, and have made it their objective to obliterate the rights of others to compete for their jobs.

By appealing to mob violence instead of to reason, there is at least one thing they have legitimately earned: the disrespect and contempt of every tolerant and respectful citizen.

It is indeed a paradox to watch certain individuals resort to violence to "protect" a job that is, as their strike action illustrates, so dissatisfying to them.

Even more telling is the response and reaction of the letter carriers' union itself: not one representative has publicly condemned the violence and no members have been fined or reprimanded for their illegal actions! If this is considered to be acceptable behaviour on the part of its members, what makes LCUC's role as a representative of "organized labour" any different from those engaged in organized crime?

Militancy has increasingly become the principle behind the labour movement in Canada today, and the use of militancy as a matter of right is its objective. And the labour movement makes no secrets about that fact.

"Without adding collective bargaining principles to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms," announced one labour representative recently, "unions may lose the right to negotiate mandatory union membership. To bargain successfully," he concluded, "individual needs have to be suppressed to serve the needs of the majority."

Suppressing the needs of the individual in order to serve the needs of the majority is precisely what leaders of communist, socialist, and many of the eastern and third world countries have been advocating and practicing now. Any group, association, or union that does not recognize the principle of individual rights, is not an association, but a gang --- or worse.

Is this the "principle" on which labour relations should operate in a free society?

We think not.

Freedom Party believes that the purpose of government is to protect our freedom of choice, not to restrict it.

The time is long overdue that the concepts of mandatory, compulsory, coercion, demands, threats, intimidation, monopoly, force and violence were replaced by the concepts of consent, peaceful cooperation, mutual respect, mutual benefit, tolerance, reason --- and choice!

But as long as elected representatives of the three major political parties in Canada insist on maintaining a monopoly on postal services, that won't happen.

Of course, OPEN COMPETITION IS THE ONLY LONG-TERM SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEMS THAT PLAGUE CANADA POST.

But even with the current political unwillingness to do this, there are still other options that could be pursued until the proper action is eventually taken.

For example, postal services could be contracted-out to those companies offering the most efficient service for the least cost. The labour monopoly, with which Canada Post must currently contend, should be ended, allowing others in our community to be hired when those dissatisfied with their jobs choose to withold their labour.

Most definitely, the right to strike within a government-granted labour monopoly must be ended.

We also recommend that any union activity resulting in physical violence or damage to property should automatically de-certify the union if it does not take the responsible action necessary to compensate those who have been injured or whose property has been vandalized. All strikers found guilty of violent action should be fined or jailed --- and fired, never again having the option to work for the post office. Their actions demand that they be treated as the criminals they are!

e-mail

Page last updated on January 7, 2004