For Immediate Release - OTTAWA - While pay equity and pensions have grabbed headlines during the current round of bargaining with Canada Post, postal workers say there are other matters on the table, including bringing back postal banking, an idea which has just been rejected by the big bank lobby.
We remain committed to the negotiating process and continue to meet with Canada Post and the mediators. We are attempting to move talks forward by discussing issues with little or no monetary impact, but progress is very slow.
Negotiations are continuing in an effort to achieve new collective agreements for both the RSMC and Urban bargaining units. The parties are working long hours to achieve this goal. We remain committed to negotiating fair collective agreements, as we have since the beginning of this process. We're encouraged that Canada Post now shares that perspective. We have no plans to issue a 72-hour notice.
The Union continues to be opposed to interest arbitration. As mentioned in previous bulletins, the Union fought against the unfair and unconstitutional legislation that took away our right to free negotiations in 2011 and we won. Why would we give up that right?
On July 7, 2016 Canada Post served the Union with a second 72- hour notice of lockout. This notice takes effect as of 12:01 am on Monday, July 11, 2016. CPC claims that they want to negotiate but they refuse to move on our key issues. Will CPC continue to issue 72-hour notices? In locations across the country, CPC has begun the process of reducing Group 1 part-time schedules to the bare minimum hours and swipe or access cards are being deactivated. What will happen on Monday? Only time will tell.
For Immediate Release - OTTAWA – Postal workers are proposing a 30-day cooling off period to Canada Post management to address concerns about “uncertainty” in the mail system and give negotiations a chance to succeed. “Our members, their families and all Canadians do not deserve to have this threat of a lockout ‘looming’ over our heads from a profitable public service. Postal workers want to work and people need to know that it’s safe to use the mail system,” said Mike Palecek, national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
For Immediate Release - OTTAWA - Postal workers currently living under the shadow of a threatened lockout are relieved that the value of their 30-day truce proposal to keep talks going and the mail moving was acknowledged by Canada Post management. But giving up their right to freely negotiate is a poison pill that shouldn’t be part of the deal, they say.
CPC has effectively refused CUPW’s offer for a 30-day cooling off period to address concerns about “uncertainty” in the mail system and give negotiations a chance to succeed. Instead management is proposing a process of compulsory arbitration to commence 30 days from now. If CPC knows there is a process of arbitration after 30 days they will simply continue to issue ultimatums and use the time to prepare their arbitration presentations. That is a prospect that the Union will not accept.
For Immediate Release - OTTAWA- Postal workers have politely declined a suggestion from federal Minister of Labour
MaryAnn Mihychuk to bring negotiations with Canada Post management to binding arbitration, saying it’s a matter of principle. “We appreciate the offer to help, but paying women equally for work of equal value is the law of the land; it’s not something that can be awarded or withheld by an arbitrator,” said Mike Palecek, national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
The CUPW agrees with the Supreme Court of Canada that collective bargaining is a fundamental right and the best way for workers to participate in the process to determine their wages, benefits, and working conditions. All of the gains we have accomplished have been through collective bargaining. Our experience with arbitration is that it is a costly and long process, often taking several years, where we have concessions imposed upon us by government- appointed arbitrators that do not have to live with the consequences of their decision.
Support Postal Banking - Download and Sign the Petition
Canada needs a postal bank. Thousands of rural towns and villages in our country do not have a bank, but many of them have a post office that could provide financial services. As well, nearly two million Canadians desperately need an alternative to payday lenders. A postal bank could be that alternative. Download and sign the petition urging the Government of Canada to instruct Canada Post to add postal banking, with a mandate for financial inclusion.
On Monday, January 27, the first hearing of the Industrial Inquiry Commission will be held in Ottawa. This Commission was convened by the Minister of Labour Steven MacKinnon under section 108 of the Canada Labour Code.
On January 20, Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier has had his life sentence commuted by outgoing US President Joe Biden. For nearly 50 years, much of it in solitary confinement, Peltier has been imprisoned for murder following a 1975 confrontation between the FBI and American Indian Movement (AIM) at the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota.
Deadline to apply: March 9, 2025
Labour College, the Canadian Labour Congress’ (CLC) flagship trade union leadership development program, is a unique learning opportunity for union leaders and active members to learn new skills and take on the challenges that face the labour movement. It provides university level courses on issues related to work and the rights of workers in Canada. It gives graduates the necessary tools to be effective leaders in their union, their labour council, and the wider labour movement for the benefit of all workers.
As you may be aware, on December 13th, 2024, Minister of labour McKinnon ordered under section 107 of the Canada Labour code for the CIRB to determine if the parties were “likely” to achieve a collective agreement by December 31st, 2024. If the CIRB was to answer negatively to the above question, they were to order the Corporation and its employees to resume and continue their operations and duties until May 22nd, 2025.
On Wednesday, January 15th, the first of three scheduled days of bargaining between CUPW and Canada Post took place with the intent of achieving negotiated collective agreements for both the Urban Operations and Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers units.
Canada Post deducted union dues on your December 31, 2024 pay, representing the dues from pay period # 27 (December 2024). Your January 16th pay will include dues owed for pay period # 1 (January 2025). These two pay periods represent dues at the 2023 rate of $90.61.
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers becoming members of CUPW in 2004, CUPW published “Road to Equality”, a book about the courage, determination and solidarity of the Suburban Mail Carriers.