1 Million Students Stand in Solidarity with CUPW Workers!
On November 15th, 2024, 55,000 postal workers walked off the job in a strike demanding a living wage, paid sick days, vacation pay, better working conditions, job security, workplace safety, and an expansion of services (including postal banking).
In solidarity with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). We wrote a letter statement signed by over one million students and workers on campuses across the country. Including 28 campus groups, student unions, and Union Local representing 447,000 students, we uplifted their demand for public postal banking as an alternative to dirty banks.
Some highlights of the statement:
…Students, like so many across so-called Canada, have been deeply impacted by the affordability crisis, the climate crisis, and the rapid privatization of vital services. At the heart of many of these issues are Canada’s private banks. These banks continue to finance major fossil fuel expansion. Those projects drive us deeper into climate chaos and violate the rights of Indigenous peoples. They also actively invest in weapons companies, contributing to violence against Palestinians in occupied Palestine and the genocide in Gaza.
Meanwhile, banks continue to rake in record profits, resulting in exorbitant executive pay and bonuses. While working-class people struggle more and more each day to make ends meet.
We need a public alternative that shifts power and wealth away from corporate executives and into the hands of people and workers. We need a public bank, accessible to all, for the benefit of communities and workers, not a handful of wealthy executives profiting at the expense of the Canadian public and our shared climate future. CUPW’s call for the re-establishment of postal banking is a step toward meeting this need, and we stand in solidarity with that demand.
As students and young people, we uplift the facts CUPW has already meticulously presented: that postal banking is both viable and lucrative and could generate much-needed revenue for Canada Post. As their fact sheet notes, postal banking generates 80% of New Zealand’s postal service’s after-tax revenue. In providing this service, Canada Post could better serve remote, elderly, disabled, and otherwise isolated communities and community members—while also securing job stability and decent pay for workers…..
In the face of a worsening climate crisis and skyrocketing cost of living, we need investment in good, low-carbon jobs. We need increased opportunities for public sector employees to do meaningful work in non-extractive and regenerative ways. Finally, we must fight for decent work for all—putting people and the planet before profit and extraction.
Public unions continue to show us that stronger communities are possible. Where workers earn enough to live, where safety nets exist for retirement, and where public services function for the common good. Students become workers—and workers are fighting to raise the bar for us all.
Standing with workers is an essential part of our movement: all work is climate work….
Read the full statement here and the list of signees of different student groups. here
Over months of negotiations, the Change Course team visited picket lines and had incredible conversations with postal workers. These workers reinforced that their strike is not just about wages—it’s a fight for young people and our collective future.
When workers win, we all win.
