Jean-Claude Parrot (born 24 July 1937) was National President of the

Canadian Union of Postal Workers The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW; french: Syndicat des travailleurs et travailleuses des postes TTP}) is a public-sector trade union representing postal workers including letter carriers, rural and suburban mail carriers, postal clerk ...

between 1977 and 1992, and its chief negotiator for eighteen years. Parrot led the union through several national postal strikes and was responsible for cultivating the union's reputation as a militant organization that made pathbreaking gains in collective bargaining that would later be adopted by other unions.

Early life

Parrot became a postal clerk in Montreal in 195

Union Activism

Parrot became CUPW's national negotiator in 1975. The 1975 negotiations led to a 43-day national strike. During the 1978 negotiations, the Canadian federal government imposed Back to work legislation, back-to-work legislation. In defiance, postal workers remained on strike for seven days after the legislation took effect. Parrot was eventually jailed for two months in 1979 for refusing to tell postal workers to return to work. He led postal workers to many victories such as the conversion of

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the opera ...

into a

Crown Corporation A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

, breakthroughs in

collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The i ...

such as paid

maternity leave Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, Paternity (law), paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and ...

, and CUPW's 1989 victory in a winner-take-all certification vote that doubled the size of the union.

Canadian Labour Congress

Jean-Claude Parrot was elected Executive

Vice-President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

of the

Canadian Labour Congress The Canadian Labour Congress, or CLC (french: Congrès du travail du Canada, link=no or ) is a national trade union centre, the central labour body in Canada to which most Canadian labour unions are affiliated. History Formation The CLC was ...

at its 19th Convention in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

in 1992. He was subsequently re-elected to this position in 1994, 1996 and 1999.

Writings

On the fortieth anniversary of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Jean-Claude Parrot published his memoirs in a book entitled ''My Union, My Life: Jean-Claude Parrot and the Canadian Union Of Postal Workers.''

References

External links