As a project of the employer-paid International Postal Fund (Appendix "R") CUPW was able to bring a delegation from the United Kingdom's Communications Workers Union (CWU) to exchange information and experience with CUPW members in Winnipeg, Quebec City, Montreal, and Ottawa and surrounding locals in November 2000.

The union, which has 180,000 members in its postal sector, sent National General Secretary Derek Hodgson and the National Assistant Secretaries for letter carriers, Billy Hayes, and internal workers, Mike Hogan, to meet with CUPW. The visit offered an opportunity to compare how the two unions have approached health and safety issues, organizing, privatization and deregulation, organization of work, route measurement, job creation and other items. The post offices in both countries are structured as Crown corporations, and the challenges faced by the two unions are very similar.

CWU successfully fought back an attempt by the Conservative government to privatize Royal Mail during Margaret Thatcher's regime. Like CUPW, CWU must respond to the pressures that commercialization and "competitiveness" have imposed on its work force.

For CUPW, the meetings with the British delegation were very helpful, especially for the continuing work of the Collection and Delivery Operation Model (Appendix AA) Committee and for health and safety activists dealing with loose-loading, overburdening and other problems. CUPW will be following up quickly to explore further how CWU's experiences and struggle can assist us in key areas. One example is that CUPW will soon send a delegation to the United Kingdom to study the high-tech loading equipment used by Royal Mail as part of our work to improve the safety of the loose loading process.

As Perspective goes to press, CWU is on the verge of a national strike over pay, staffing and changes in working practices.