Commentary
The current postal strike is almost a nostalgic throwback to the more contested strikes in the public service that afflicted the federal government under Pierre Trudeau more than 40 years ago and several provincial governments, especially Quebec.
The Crown corporation that operates Canadian post offices loses $3 billion a year. Postal services are in steady decline, having been substantially replaced by the internet, courier services, and less formal business practices requiring only confirmation of receipt of scanned or even faxed documents.
In earlier times, there was a vigorous debate over the right to strike in essential public services. Quebec’s longest-serving premier, Maurice Duplessis, famously declared in 1948: “The right to strike against the public interest does not exist.” Duplessis produced many statutes improving the lot of Quebec’s working class by direct government action and not by legislatively favouring the labour union leaders, whom he believed (with some reason) to be infested with self-seeking leftists….