This Month in
Labour History

Union Leaders Jailed in the 1980s

Unionized public employees continually strugglefor rights other workers take for granted. In the 1980s the presidents of three public sector unions were sent to jail by governments because their members went on strike. CUPE President, Grace Hartman, and Ontario Division President, Lucy Nicholson, were sentenced to 45 days for the 1981 wildcat strike by Ontario hospital workers. Sean Flynn, President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, was sentenced to 35 days for supporting his members. The first to be jailed was Jean-Claude Parrot, President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. On January 29^th, 1980, he started serving a 3-month prison term for the union defying a back-to-work law imposed on postal workers.

Labour relations at Canada Post have always been bad. Management can always count on the government to support them, but workers have to face them both. Starting in 1965 until this past fall, there have been 22 strikes. The government used legislation five times to end the job actions by workers.

In 1974, postal workers went on a ‘wildcat’ strike to win equal pay for female employees. In 1977, workers wanted to reduce overtime hours to obtain full-time positions, as well as obtain technological changes, shorter work weeks, and paid maternity leaves. Union members faced political interference and constant misinformation coming from the federal government. In the summer of 1977, internal documents were leaked showing that the government was doing all it could to bypass the union to deal with the membership directly.

Finally, on October 16, 1978, after 18 months of frustrating negotiations, the postal workers across the country walked off the job. The government responded the same day by passing Bill C-8 ordering an end to the strike. Workers refused to return, and the President Jean-Claude Parrot and the union’s National Executive Board refused to order the membership to end their strike. The RCMP raided union offices while the union was holding meetings with the Federal Minister of Labour. Management warned that if workers did not return, they would all be fired. To protect members’ jobs, the union ended the strike that day, telling the membership to return with heads held high.

In turn, the government arrested the entire CUPW National Executive Board. The court bail conditions required Parrot to end a strike that had already ended. After a seven-day trial, Jean-Claude was sentenced to 3 months in jail and to 18 months’ probation for defying Parliament. Then the government imposed a collective agreement on the union. There was strong public support for CUPW members as there was for CUPE hospital workers. But in both cases the government used its power to crush workers’ hope and to end free collective bargaining.