Attention members.
Regarding compressed admail. The collective agreement states the following:
“6.0 Payment System for Letter Carrier Delivery of Neighbourhood Mail
(a) A per piece payment governed by the “Payable to Letter Carriers” column in the
chart will be paid to letter carriers.
(b) Notwithstanding paragraph 2.0(b), when, as a result of circumstances beyond the control of
the local delivery operation, a reduction of the delivery days is required in order to meet
delivery commitments, an additional per piece payment of….”
An example of a circumstance that is beyond local delivery control would be a truck carrying the admail broke down on the highway causing a mis commitment; admail shipped to the wrong city by the customer or something that local delivery has absolutely no control over. If NM is sitting in KMPP and should be at KCD, that is not a reason.
In addition to the collective agreement, we have an MOA (memorandum of agreement) arising out of a Grievance signed by Canada Post and CUPW that there is to be consultation prior to any compression.
From the MOA:
“Canada Post and the CUPW are in agreement that all neighbourhood mail that falls outside the size, weight and delivery day specifications covered in the Appendix D………….. For an agreement to take place a a local level, the local executives of the Union must be consulted…… the parties able to reach an agreement on the piece rate……”
We received an email asking us to whom they notify when they plan on compression; understanding the Management team are mostly new, we gave them the list (the Local President and H&S Co-Chair).
This does not mean, notify and compress. It means notify to consult, then consult to come to an agreement on a value per piece, then maybe compress. Consultation takes place in a meeting with more than one (1) executive member as the MOA states ‘executives’.
If everything was fine before and you have not changed anything you are doing, then why are they making you suffer by compressing?
If admail is compressed, ask your supervisor why is it compressed? Ask how much you are getting paid per piece? Talk to a shop steward and find out if there has been consultation per the MOA.
You have a right on that very day to sit with your shop steward because it is considered an Urgent matter as it affects your pay, potentially your knees, feet and back. Fill out a grievance fact sheet with your shop steward.
They cannot compress until consultation takes place. If they compress without consultation, they are in violation.
An increase delivery to more points of calls increases the chance of injury, dog bites and wear/tear, etc.
Admail compression is the opposite of ‘make it safe, make it home’. What of work-life balance?
The average route today in Kitchener/Waterloo is structured with 45-50% coverage or in some cases as low as 18% coverage. To compress admail is a significant increase to your workload in delivery, in some cases, by as much as 555% or 5.5 times more points of calls to process and deliver.
If there is a foot walk that is 20 KMS at 45% coverage, would the decision makers up the ‘ladder’ be happy to walk an extra 10KM, going up and down driveways and stairs, in sideways rain, sleet or snow?
There should never be a reason to compress delivery or a reason to ‘revert’ back to compression.
The expectation is the company to abide by the C/A and the MOA. No compression until consultation.