“What MACLEAN’S Doesn’t Know About CUPW or Gandhi”

MACLEAN’S was off base in their editorial about Operation Transparency, CUPW's campaign to obtain information about Canada Post's national network review and its overall plans for our public post office. And they were off their game entirely not to think that the union wouldn't notice that MACLEAN’S former Editor-In-Chief now works as special advisor to Canada Post President Moya Greene.

That’s why we asked MACLEAN’S for a meeting with their editorial board to help set the record straight. It’s a chance for us to try to address MACLEAN’S unprincipled bias. It won’t be easy. It never is.

When the conservatives asked for accountability and transparency the media had a love-in. When CUPW asked for the same from Canada Post, MACLEAN’S screamed “toxic relationship” with the employer.

MACLEAN’S asked readers to picture Canada Post as somehow losing money if future profits aren’t expected to be as big as present profits. They also said new technology like electronic communication will mean fewer people and plants. Did the fax do away with letters? Is postal service about people or profits?

Our letter to the editor of MACLEAN’S was printed in the magazine but was heavily edited. We’ve reproduced our original letter on the back of this bulletin for your information.

Amazingly, MACLEAN’S also used the picture of a member who never agreed to have his picture associated with an editorial that smears his union.

And just for the record, we do not presume to compare ourselves to Gandhi. We simply described part of our campaign as “Gandhi inspired non-violent civil disobedience.”

Clearly Canada Post’s communications folks have grown more brazen, their attacks on our members and the union, more calculated. And the mainstream media is buying into it.

To stop this sort of bullying we need to be tough and we need to be smart. We have to deal with the mainstream communications media, but our real strength in the work place, in the street, in the courts and in the political arena is our grass roots activism and member-to-member communication.

Meanwhile we’ve set up a meeting in June with MACLEAN’S editorial board and we’ll do what we do best – remind everyone that when you take on CUPW, you take on all of CUPW.