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November 22 2024

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Nickel Belt News

Volume 58 Number 11

Friday, March 16, 2018

Thompson, Manitoba

Serving the Norman Region since 1961

Friday, November 22, 2024

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Volume 64 • Issue 44

Canada Post workers strike after prolonged bargaining stalemates

Book a way to preserve and pass on memories of growing up in Churchill

Photo By Matthias J. Johnson The CUPW argues that are fighting for the future or carry alone. Fair wages are also at the sion to strike, postal workCanada Post has repeatedly and expansion of services Another major point of forefront of the negotiation ers have expressed pride in refused to negotiate mean- at our public post offices, contention is the right to disputes. The union is seek- serving their communities, In a significant move ingful solutions to workers’ including initiatives like retire with dignity. The ing to fold the Cost of Liv- including Thompson and affecting postal services concerns. Issues highlighted postal banking, prescription CUPW has voiced strong ing Allowance (COLA) into surrounding areas. The nationwide, approximate- by the union include threats medication delivery, and opposition to Canada Post’s wages, ensure temporary CUPW maintains that a ly 55,000 postal workers to change working condi- enhanced internet access.” push for weaker pension employees receive COLA, strike is a last resort, underrepresented by the Canadian tions, exposure to layoffs, Health and safety stan- plans, which they argue decrease the number of in- scoring their commitment Union of Postal Workers the reduction of full-time dards for employees are will endanger the financial crements in the wage table, to both their work and the (CUPW) initiated a na- positions, and a potential also central to the CUPW’s security of both current and increase starting wages people Nickel Belt Newsthey photoserve. by Ian Graham tionwide strike on Friday, compromise on the quality demands. The union is ad- members and future gen- for new employees. By conAs the strike continues, Addictions Foundation of Manitoba northern director Gisele deMeulles has written a book about her experiences growing up, mostly in Churchill. November 15, at 12:01 a.m. of services available to the vocating for improved erations. “Postal workers trast, Canada Post appears its impact on postal serviET. The GRAHAM decision to strike public. health be leaning towardssaya cesFor across Canada is being BY IAN all the harsh weather to write things that you have conditions, ‘Oh, I’m just asparticularly bad, right?’ put wastheir not a very and safebodies thing to swallow when people came after a year of nego- to “Our been regarding work stories in extreme the but line Idaily in challenthat promotes part- closely with EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET figureaim out.has It’salways pretty clear I have all these and on to do jumped at it. I system that Churchill residents and the monitored, dangers of polar tiations with Canada Post to secure and them weather, working conditions; work, a workers and communities Though she’s now written when I get negotiated through.” col- temperatures I need to capture for ging thought that was exciting time, shouldlower-wage just find somewhere bears, deMeulles said if it that yielded progress lective agreements,” as a reduction in they toand es- shift hoping swift a book aboutlittle her experienDeMeulles said she stated wrote as mywell grandchildren really until deserve the planeaccess landed easierthe toCUPW live. refers to as alike had been viablefor shea would on affecting Samantha Scibak, CUPW maximum weight that benefits,” Scibak workplace. thetoongoing ces critical growingissues up in Churchill, her book, titled Whispers in the because they will be lost if sential they started throwing the “gigifying” “To say, the ‘Those people resolution have movedto back Churchthe workforce. Despite deci- labor Addictions Foundation of Secretary the Wind: Treasurer. Stories from“We the workers fuel off and I realized, ‘Holy choose to the livedifficult there. They ill in adispute. heartbeat. I don’t.” are required to lift emphasized. BY MATTHIAS J. JOHNSON THOMPSON CITIZEN STAFF REPORTER

Manitoba northern director Gisele deMeulles said writing wasn’t something she always thought she would do. “In my youth I never felt good at writing,” she said. “But when I moved to Thompson to get into the school of social work, at that point I had to write for university and realized, ‘Holy, I’m not bad at this, right?’ I certainly developed a lot of skill in university and came out of there with a very strong skill in my writing and confidence in my writing. I write very clear and that’s it. It’s there. Some people say it’s kind of blunt or direct. I don’t tend

North - Life in Churchill for a couple of reasons. “I just sort of thought, you know what, this history, this stuff that’s in my head, it’s going to be gone if I don’t write it down,” she said. “My kids are not going to get it if I don’t do it and it’s something I’ve always wanted my mom to do. My mom’s an elder and she’s an artist, she’s got so many wonderful stories because she always tells her stories at Parks Canada in Churchill and I’ve always hounded her, ‘Please, just put it on tape, I will write it for you because your story is going to be lost,’ and she’s never done it and I thought,

She also has a reputation as a storyteller herself. “I had such a varied history and I would tell people stories and they would go, ‘That’s not true, is it?’ I’d go, ‘Yeah it’s true.’ They’d go, ‘You didn’t do all that, did you? You’ve got to be really old.’ I was like, ‘No, actually I did all that before I was 27,’ and they went ‘What?’” Looking back, some of those experiences are things she might not do again. “I did some pretty bizarre stuff like fuel hauls into the high Arctic at -35,” said deMeulles. “It didn’t dawn on me until after. That was a very dangerous thing to do. Being on a plane full of fuel

cats, I was probably sitting on a bomb.’” Another thing that spurred her on was the hard times facing Churchill since the Hudson Bay Railway suspended operations north of Gillam last spring. “It used to be a really thriving large community and it’s just dwindled down to such a small population now,” deMeulles says. Though she’s not there any longer, her parents and her sister and other family members still are. “My cousin owns the hardware store there,” she says. Because of that, deMeulles finds it hard to

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should just leave,’ is quite simplistic. It’s quite disrespectful. If we were in the same boat in another area I think we would scream about that so why don’t they have the option to do that? I think right now they’re feeling like they’re pawns in a political game and that’s really sad for them because I think the people of Churchill really want to thrive. They’ve built their worlds there. How would we feel if someone came to you and said, ‘I’m sorry, you have to leave your home community and we’re going to displace you somewhere else and all your loved ones and your history is gone?’”

“I miss the shoreline, I miss the rock, I miss the polar bears even though they’re very dangerous and I really miss the Hudson Bay,” she says. “When I go back home, standing on the Hudson Bay looking out on the bay, it just gives you an incredible sense. You feel so small and you feel great.” Now that she’s got one book under her belt, deMeulles says she may try to produce another. “I have another book in me,” she says. “It’s a darker story, more about personal growth and struggles. Maybe in the next five years it’s something I’ll focus on doing.”


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