In a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday night, Jean-Yves Duclos, the Minister responsible for Canada Post, who heads up the Department of Public Service and Procurement Canada, discussed our ongoing strike and the future of Canada Post with the CBC’s Power and Politics show host, Catherine Cullen. The Minister told Ms. Cullen that the service first mandate “will not change” and that includes “serving every Canadian where they live including northern and remote areas.” He also said that parcel delivery was increasing “at a very high speed” which is “good news” for Canada Post.
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has dismissed CUPW’s constitutional challenge against the 2018 back-to-work legislation that ended rotating strikes and imposed interest arbitration on members of our two largest bargaining units – Urban Operations and Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers.
Back-to-work legislation is always an infringement of workers’ rights --
Hearings are now concluded in the Ontario Superior Court on our constitutional challenge to the 2018 back to work legislation. CUPW leaders, activists, and our legal counsel worked hard and presented a strong case before Judge Edward Morgan to have the legislation declared unconstitutional and defend our free collective bargaining rights.
The new Collective Agreements imposed by Arbitrator MacPherson address some of our concerns, but also leave some major issues unresolved. This award is a great example of how we cannot resolve our issues with compulsory arbitration. We need free collective bargaining and the right to strike. These rights have always been the power behind our major contractual gains.
Bill C-89, An Act to provide for the resumption and continuation of postal services was passed by the federal Liberal majority in the House of Commons on November 24, 2018 and took effect at noon on November 27. One year has passed.
What is Canada Post doing? While your Negotiating Committee is getting ready for the mediation phase outlined in the Act, Canada Post is packing up and leaving the hotel without even letting the Union know. What a show of class and respect! It appears that Canada Post has no intention of fully taking part in the mediation set out in the back-to-work legislation.
The government has aligned themselves with Canada Post. They have legislated more pain, injuries and unpaid work. But they cannot legislate labour peace. Canada Post has the potential to do many great things for people and for our communities while creating safe, stable and decent jobs. And yet, we find ourselves back in a familiar place, where once again, the governing party has sided with the richest interests in the country, proving that corporations really control political power.
Bill C-89 passed the House of Commons last night. Even though mediator-assisted negotiations are still going on, the Trudeau Liberal government chose to undercut our bargaining power and send us back to the same old unresolved problems in the workplace. We condemn the legislation as a hypocritical act by a government that promised to defend workers’ rights, claimed to stand for equality for women, and claimed to stand for expanding and defending the middle class. It’s unacceptable for any government to violate workers’ Charter rights, especially one that said it would work to improve labour relations at Canada Post. Shame on Trudeau and Hajdu, who promised better.
The Liberal government has intervened in the labour dispute at Canada Post. The Minister of Labour introduced back-to-work legislation that fundamentally violates the right to free collective bargaining, guaranteed to all workers in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We know from experience that Canada Post management has only one strategy: sit back and wait for legislation, and the Liberal government is now doing their dirty work.
So far Canada Post has not moved on any of our key issues. Justice Firestone stated in his decision that after the Conservative Government introduced the back-to-work legislation in 2011, that Canada Post hardened their position in bargaining. The effect of this legislation was to “substantially interfere” and “to disrupt the balance of a meaningful process of collective bargaining”.
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.
Tomorrow, August 20, your Negotiating Committee will return to the bargaining table to present new global offers for both postal bargaining units to Canada Post.
Unfortunately, our scheduled meetings for Friday, August 15th and Monday, August 18th, have been postponed. The Federal mediators will not be able to assist CUPW and CPC due to their current involvement in the Air Canada negotiations.
This September, CUPW joins its Malayali brothers and sisters with joy and pride to observe Onam celebrations in Canada. Onam is one of the most significant regional festivals celebrated in Kerala, the southernmost state of India.
After pressing the Employer to come back to the bargaining table early last week, we received a response from Canada Post CEO Doug Ettinger on Friday evening, just hours after we posted Bulletin 128, “CUPW is Waiting for Canada Post.” In his letter, Mr. Ettinger stuck to the lines we’ve heard from Canada Post for many months now.
A week ago, CUPW members spoke loudly and rejected what Canada Post called its “best and final” offers. The goal of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers remains negotiating ratifiable collective agreements which meet postal workers’ needs, help grow the current services provided by a public post office and to better serve Canadians with new services.
Last week, postal workers decisively rejected Canada Post’s “best and final offers” in the government-forced vote. With a turnout of over 80%, nearly 70% of our members told Canada Post, “No, these offers won’t do it!”
Every employer in the Federal and Provincial sector has been watching us. Rejecting these offers was a victory not only for our Union, but for the labour movement as a whole.
To all CUPW members,
Thank you for showing up, for standing together, and for participating in the government forced vote. Regardless of how you voted, your participation was an act of solidarity and strength. And for those who voted to reject the final offers, your decision sent a powerful message: “We know our worth, and we deserve better”.
After almost two weeks of voting, the results are now in: CUPW members in both bargaining units have spoken, and they have rejected Canada Post’s global offers.
We’ve now entered the second and final week of the government-imposed forced vote on Canada Post’s “final” offers. As of July 28, 69 % of Urban members and 71.4 % of RSMC members have already casted their vote. Voting continues until 5 pm EST on August 1.
On March 24, 2021, the House of Commons voted to designate August 1st as Emancipation Day to commemorate the slavery abolition act of 1833, which took effect in 1834 and paved the way for the liberation of over 800,000 enslaved Black people across the “British Empire”, including parts of the Caribbean, Africa, South America and Canada.