Over the weekend, Canada Post informed the public and CUPW members, through the media, that CUPW Negotiators had spent Saturday at the bargaining table talking about cleaners working inside Canada Post facilities. This is an outright misrepresentation.
CUPW Negotiators instead worked on a response to Canada Post’s latest weekend delivery proposal, which was only presented late Friday. The Employer’s proposal would see Canada Post hire part-time employees for Saturday only delivery, who would only have eight (8) hours of scheduled work per week. Who can live off that?
Canada Post appears to be trying to sway public opinion and turn Canadians against postal workers, who have continually demonstrated a deep commitment to the country and its citizens. This tactic of distraction not only mischaracterizes the nature of the Negotiations but undermines the hard work and dedication shown by postal employees.
It’s clear that Canada Post is out of touch with the workers of this country. A Canada Post spokesperson said earlier in the strike that young people don’t want full-time work; that they all want “flexibility.” But over the last few years, all we’ve heard is that young people are struggling with the high cost of living. They are working multiple jobs not because they want to, but because they need to in order to survive. We are bargaining not only for the workers of today, but so new postal workers will be compensated fairly so they won’t need multiple jobs.
Canada Post also wants new workers to accept a Defined Contribution Pension Plan, even though our Defined Benefit Pension Plan is overfunded by 140 %.
After a week of discussions about parcels with no real movement, on Saturday morning CUPW requested that the Employer respond to Urban demands that were presented a month ago. To date there has been no response. These included demands about Group 1 staffing and contract work.
Group 1 Staffing
The Union has demands to increase the number of full-time workers in plants, post offices, corporate retail outlets and depots to ensure they are properly staffed. Canada Post has steadily increased the number of temporary hours at most of its locations despite retention problems and training costs during bargaining. We want a local instead of national measurement of full-time work. We are asking Canada Post to offer work hours to part-time employees before using temporary labour and that part-time and temporary workers have access to permanent full-time positions where possible and part-time only when required. All of this will maximize straight time hours before the use of temporary labour. Canada Post has failed to answer any of the Union’s proposals.
Contracting Out
Canada Post also failed to mention that one of their Negotiators, a Labour Relations Manager, recently told us that Canada Post could contract out the parcels we deliver on the weekends without a change in the collective agreement. The comment was taken as a threat by CUPW Negotiators.
While we disagree with Canada Post, this threat has made it all the more important to strengthen the collective agreement on contracting out of all of our work.
Contracting In
For many years and in many places, the Corporation has used contractors to do customer pick-ups and deliver parcels and relay bags for letter carriers. These Combined Urban Service (CUS) drivers are taken advantage of by Canada Post and the company they work for. They receive lower wages, fewer benefits and no pension; and some have carried the mail for decades. This is one of the Contracting In opportunities the Union has presented, which Canada Post has already done in some locations this year.
Another group of workers that stand beside us every day that are taken advantage of by Canada Post’s system on contract work are cleaners. Money is shared between contractors and subcontractors and the workers get what is left. In many locations, these workers are fighting for provincial minimum wage for doing tasks many of us would not do, few benefits, and no pension. We will not apologize for trying to help workers that helped us stay safe during the pandemic, and we have successfully bargained for other exploited workers in the past.
On Sunday November 24, Canada Post outright rejected some of our proposals for Group 1 staffing and again refused to discuss the rest of our demands on the subject. They also refused to discuss contracting out and contracting in for the Urban unit.
Canada Post rejected Union proposals to ensure proper mail volumes for all RSMC routes and said they were not prepared to talk about RSMC Job Security at this time.
In solidarity,
Jan Simpson
National President