Mail Disruption Looms
Prince George, B.C. – Though labour negotiations are ongoing, there could be a mail disruption in Canada as earlier as this Saturday.
Talks between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) started last November yet a deal has yet to be reached.
Cindy McDonald, regional grievance officer with CUPW, says the union is currently going over the employer’s latest offer which was presented over the weekend.
She says the biggest sticking point is gaining “equality” for their rural mail carriers.
“So we’re looking for equality in working conditions, pay, wages, benefits, that kind of thing.”
McDonald says their rural/suburban mail carriers are currently earning 28% less pay and half the benefits of their urban members though the issue wasn’t addressed in the weekend offer.
Instead in a posting on their website, Canada Post says “all employees would see an increase in their take-home pay.”
The crown corporation also notes there is no change to pensions and job security remains the same.
Moving forward, McDonald says the union will be in a legal position to issue 72-hour strike notice on Wednesday though she says at this point they “don’t have any intention of doing so.”
As for Canada Post, it says a 60-day cooling off period expires July 2 which McDonald says could mean postal workers will be locked out.
The collective agreement between the two sides expired December 31, 2015.
Comments
Whatever will I do without all my flyers?
I wonder if the postal union has heard of this new internets thing that everyone has switched to instead of paper correspondence? I agree with axman, the last time I checked my mail there were about 10 flyers and no other mail. Times are changing and unfortunately the union will have to realize this.
About 85% of Canadians use the internet. This leave roughly 4.5 Million who do not have this service.
Canada Post delivers millions of parcels per year, so if they go on strike you will have to find another way to move these parcels.
Not sure why they want rural carriers to get the same wages and benefits as city carriers. One walks and packs, the other rides and stuffs roadside boxes.
Canada Post still moves a lot of parcels, who do you think handles all those online purchases?
I don’t think they care about your letter mail too much.
They will be in business for a long time, even if they do have a hard time seeing what is right in front of them.
metalman.
US Postal, UPS, DHL, Fed EX, Purolator, Canpar, lots of options besides Canada Post
I’ve bought lots of stuff on line. I always choose the postal service of the country involved, US Post, China Post etc. From experience, the trouble with couriers is that some of them have hidden costs, like mandatory custom’s broker fees which can be more than the cost of the item purchased and unexpectedly bump up the cost to unreasonable amounts. I have no problems with Canada Post and get really good service. mailing stuff to other people can be a bit expensive, but it is still at least as cheep as courier and very reliable.
Peter. Some of the Parcel Companies you named are not much more than a bad joke. Especially in the rural areas. It takes much longer for some of these courier companies than it does for Canada Post, and of course Canada Post is cheaper.
Canada post is good except I think most online shopping is done outside of Canada. The only courier company I have had issues with is UPS and their “duty taxes”, which is nothing more than scam in my opinion..
If people are interested in learning about what Canada Post actually does (it’s easy to assume they simply trot around delivering pizza flyers), check out their annual reports online. Here is the link for the 2015 report:
https ://www.canadapost.ca/assets/pdf/aboutus/financialreports/2015_ar_overview_en.pdf
I think you’ll find that the business is quite complex and that they have multiple very viable and profitable business lines. I’d suggest they are indeed evolving with the times. You probably just don’t see it because much of their core business is not focused on the activities that the average person sees on a day to day basis.
Strike means union doesn’t want to deal
LOCK OUT means the employer doesn’t.
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