Vancouver workers walk off the job for 15 minutes in protest
Canada Post workers in Vancouver walked off the job Thursday to protest a contract to deliver what they considered homophobic literature.
The crown corporation assured workers it would look into the matter and workers returned 15 minutes later.
The contract is with the Fundamentalist Baptist Mission in Waterford, Ont. to deliver an unaddressed 28-page pamphlet, The Prophetic Word.
The article to which workers took offence was called "The Plague of this 21st Century: The Consequences of the Sin of Homosexuality (AIDS)" in the September issue.
On Wednesday, the letter carriers at the mail depot in East Vancouver were told they had to deliver the pamphlets or face disciplinary action, said Ken Mooney, spokesperson for the Vancouver local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
The entire crew of 60 people at the mail depot walked off the job without notice on Thursday, but the job disruption only lasted 15 minutes.
The workers were told they wouldn't have to carry the pamphlet on Thursday, but it will have to be delivered in the next couple of days, said Colleen Frick, Canada Post spokesperson. All ad mail has to be delivered within three days of arriving at the depot, she said.
Canada Post doesn't have a policy when it comes to hate literature, said Mooney. As long as a company pays to have its material delivered, it gets done, he said.
"Hate mail" is not a legal term, said Frick, and Canada Post isn't in the business of defining what hate mail is.
She added that posties don't have the right to refuse to deliver the mail. The contract between the corporation and the union requires them to deliver mail the corporation deems acceptable.
The crown corporation assured workers it would look into the matter and workers returned 15 minutes later.
The contract is with the Fundamentalist Baptist Mission in Waterford, Ont. to deliver an unaddressed 28-page pamphlet, The Prophetic Word.
The article to which workers took offence was called "The Plague of this 21st Century: The Consequences of the Sin of Homosexuality (AIDS)" in the September issue.
On Wednesday, the letter carriers at the mail depot in East Vancouver were told they had to deliver the pamphlets or face disciplinary action, said Ken Mooney, spokesperson for the Vancouver local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
The entire crew of 60 people at the mail depot walked off the job without notice on Thursday, but the job disruption only lasted 15 minutes.
The workers were told they wouldn't have to carry the pamphlet on Thursday, but it will have to be delivered in the next couple of days, said Colleen Frick, Canada Post spokesperson. All ad mail has to be delivered within three days of arriving at the depot, she said.
Canada Post doesn't have a policy when it comes to hate literature, said Mooney. As long as a company pays to have its material delivered, it gets done, he said.
"Hate mail" is not a legal term, said Frick, and Canada Post isn't in the business of defining what hate mail is.
She added that posties don't have the right to refuse to deliver the mail. The contract between the corporation and the union requires them to deliver mail the corporation deems acceptable.
