Career
Early in his career, CUPW had reached a low point with Canadians when, at the outset of a 42-day postal strike, Parrot"s presidential predecessor Joe Davidson responded to a reporter"s hypothetical question by uttering "to hell with the public."
Capitalizing on the lack of support for the postal worker union, the federal government moved quickly in 1978 to crush the workers, imposing back-to-work legislation. In defiance, postal workers remained on strike for seven days after the legislation took effect. J.C. Parrot was eventually jailed for two months in 1980 for not telling postal workers to return to work.
Jean-Claude Parrot was elected Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress at its 19th Convention in Vancouver in 1992.
He was subsequently re-elected to this position in 1994, 1996 and 1999. 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".
