The latest offer from Canada Post in negotiations between the crown corporation and the union, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) is being put to a vote at the direction of Minister of Jobs and Families, Patty Hadju.
Minister Hadju announced her decision to use section 108 of the Canada Labour Code on Thursday, saying the strain placed on small businesses and communities makes forcing a vote in the public interest. No date for the vote has been set yet, but Minister Hadju said the Canada Industrial Relations Board will be directed to hold the vote as soon as possible.
National president of the CUPW, Jan Simpson, called the minister’s decision “another assault” on the workers’ bargaining rights.
“In all instances, the Government has assisted with the Employer: “pausing” our legal strike action, establishing an IIC with terms favouring the Employer’s positions, and now forcing a vote against the Union’s clear opposition,” Simpson wrote on the CUPW website. “We will not stand by as the Government and Canada Post work together to try to undermine our hard-fought rights, gut our collective agreements and re-write them on their own terms. Postal workers know how to fight back. We’ve done it before, and we’re ready to do it again.”
The leadership of the union is recommending that members vote against accepting Canada Post’s offer, citing issues with the corporation’s proposals around “part-time flex” positions, route ownership, pensions and wages.
CUPW said on their website that the use of “part-time flex” workers could erode worker safety and result in fewer hours being offered to existing full and part-time staff. The union also cautions that using “unstructured” work would give management too much power to build routes that do not take into account fair workloads or health and safety.
Canada Post’s offers also include a change to work ownership, which the corporation said could limit ‘trapped time’ and overtime. CUPW, however, says this clause could allow management to assign additional work to fill unused hours without paying for the additional labour.
When it comes to pensions and wages, CUPW says that the corporation’s offers do not provide a high enough wage increase to keep up with the cost of living and their changes to pension plan eligibility would leave future hires waiting longer than current employees to have access to benefits.
Canada Post said they welcome the minister’s decision because it allows employees to have a voice at a crucial point in the corporation’s history.
“A negotiated agreement between the parties has always been the preferred path to an employee ratification vote,” Canada Post wrote on their website. “However, the parties remain at a major impasse after 18 months of negotiations, a national strike and an Industrial Inquiry Commission that detailed the challenges facing the company, and what needs to be done to begin addressing them.”
While Canada Post may applaud this decision, one labour expert said this will likely not work out in the corporation’s favour. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), professor Larry Savage from Brock University’s Department of Labour Studies said this decision could spark backlash that will unite CUPW membership.
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