Canada Post: How should Greens respond?

Throughout the postal strike I found myself thinking how should Greens respond and on what basis should we respond? Which Green values applied to this postal strike?

Standing up for the public interest certainly is a Green value. How much weight should be given to the public interest, especially when 70% of Canadians supported back to work legislation? Was that poll number a true reflection of the public interest or are there other factors involved that would suggest for example, that not intervening in the Canada Post dispute would actually have been in the longer term public interest?

Certainly all governments have a duty to uphold the laws of the country. So it should be a concern to Greens and all parties if indeed collective bargaining rights were violated. The union is considering mounting a legal challenge to the back to work legislation so we may soon enough know whether rights violations were in play. But, how much weight should be given to a legal status that can only be clarified in the future after months of proceedings when back to work legislation needed to be supported or opposed in the present?

Certainly when it comes to social justice Greens have strong instincts to protect those most vulnerable in our society. That’s clearly a fundamental Green value for me. At the same time it also seems to me that this value needs to be more urgently applied to those Canadians living in poverty for example.

For me it was important during this strike to not generalize. Being fair, objective and practical strike me as Green values so it was important to see that this strike was not about all unions, all management and all collective bargaining. Although 70% of Canadians supported back to work legislation in the recent circumstances my guess is that a similar majority would oppose back to work legislation in the private sector. I suspect they also would have opposed back to work legislation in similar numbers in the recent circumstances had there been comparable alternatives for all services provided by Canada Post.

One important question at play in the strike was to what extent do we consider Canada Post to be an essential service? Legally it is not an essential service in the sense that it is indeed legal for workers to strike. But, most would also agree that in practice it comes close to being an essential service because Canada Post retains government mandated monopoly rights on specific services. One thing is for sure, as a corporation Canada Post is in a category all of its own.

Moving forward, would it be ‘more Green’ to open up Canada Post to increasing competition provided that certain standards for rural mail delivery could be up held, or, would it be ‘more Green’ to safeguard Canada Post against further competition or dilution of service levels? Should we look to clues from other countries who have already removed monopoly status from their national postal services such as Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and New Zeeland? The entire European Union is on track to liberalize all postal services by the end of 2011. That certainly seems to be a Green value too, trying to learn from what works or doesn’t work in other places.

It’s not easy being Green but trying to determine what Green values actually are would certainly make it easier to consistently respond to specific issues such as a postal strike or the ongoing role Canada Post should play in our economy moving forward.