November 20^th is the International Transgender Day of Remembrance.  On that day, CUPW is asking you to pay special attention to the struggles and victories of trans people.  Transgender persons still face harassment, violence and discrimination at work, in the community, and within the labour movement.  Transsexual and transgender people still experience injustices such as denial of employment, housing, and access to trans-sensitive health care, and inability to obtain identification documents because of their gender identity and gender expression.

Currently the Canadian Human Rights Act does not explicitly protect transsexual and transgender people from discrimination and harassment and violence based on their gender identity or gender expression; Both the Urban Operations and RSMC collective agreements do not contain clear language protecting transsexual and transgender people from discrimination and harassment.   

CUPW has a proud history of activism, fighting for a society where everyone is treated with justice, dignity and respect.  This is why one of our demands in the current Urban Operations negotiations is to add explicit wording to protect transgender and transsexual workers from discrimination and harassment on the basis of gender identity.

The transgender day of remembrance gives CUPW members an opportunity to remember transgender people who have been murdered or who have encountered physical or psychological violence due to transphobia. 

It is also an opportunity to remind both ourselves and Canada Post about some of the reasons we want to add psychological violence to articles 5.01 (Discrimination) and 33.31 (workplace violence) in the Urban Operations Collective Agreement.

There are some very concrete actions we can take to support transgender and transsexual people:

1. Please circulate the petition on the back of this bulletin.  It is calling on Parliament to support Bill C389 and immediately implement legislation to update the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) to include gender identity and gender expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination and the Criminal Code of Canada to include gender identity and gender expression in the hate crime and sentencing provisions.
2. Watch for and participate in events to mark Transgender Day of remembrance in your community.
3. Actively support the demands to add psychological violence and gender expression in the Urban Operations Collective Agreement.

Together we can make a better world.