Postal workers in Vancouver walked out Thursday morning in protest over a contract to deliver what they considered to be homophobic literature from an Ontario-based religious group.
They returned to work 15 minutes later, after receiving assuring that Canada Post would review the matter.
“It's a basic principle – you don't deliver hate literature,” Ken Mooney, spokesman for the Vancouver local of the Canadian Union of postal Workers.
“It is difficult to censor a lot of material but this one was easy to recognize as hate literature. The big problem is the post office does not really have a policy,” Mr. Mooney said.
“They accept these mailings and they deliver them, as long as you pay. They do not have a system where they can reconsider once they made aware of the nature of the publication. They agreed to deliver it and that was the problem. They were not going to stop. They wanted to proceed, under a threat of suspension.”
Mr. Mooney said some employees notified the union Wednesday about the 28-page unaddressed mail. The union asked Canada Post to reconsider its contract. The union members were told those who did not take out the mail would be suspended.
“What they should have done is say, Holy Cow, we are going to review this. That is what they ultimately did, but we had to walk out first,” Mr. Mooney said.
“It was unaddressed mail of a very disturbing nature, homophobic and definitely unacceptable by any standard. We think it should never have been accepted by Canada Post,” Mr. Mooney said.
The entire crew of 60 people at a mail depot in East Vancouver walked without warning. Everyone supported the walk out, Mr. Mooney said. “Everyone was deeply offended by this. We stayed out 15 minutes. We stayed out that long to give Canada Post a chance to reconsider.”
The walk-out comes as the federal government is once again grappling with the same-sex issue. The Harper government is expected to propose legislation to protect religious leaders who refuse to conduct same-sex marriages.
A spokesman for Canada Post said after the postal workers had returned to their work that an official response would be available soon. The religious group that sent out the literature has not yet been identified.
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