Canada Post Strike Update July

[skylarstuff]

Canada Post extremely disappointed with CUPW’s response to its offers

Dear Canada Post customer,

I am writing to update you on our negotiations and advise you that there can be no legal work disruption before the expiry of a 72-hour notice, and one has yet to be filed.

On Saturday, June 25, 2016, we tabled offers in our separate negotiations with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW-Urban and CUPW-RSMC), which represent our delivery agents and plant employees. Our offers were designed to help bring a quick resolution to the negotiations and end the uncertainty that is negatively impacting our customers and our employees. Our offers included modest and manageable wage increases for all employees and no changes to the pension for all employees in the plan.

As you can read in our public statement, we are extremely disappointed with the response from CUPW. Late Friday evening, CUPW tabled offers that would add at least $1 billion in new costs over the term of a new collective agreement while rejecting the Corporation’s approach to address the long-term issues with the employee pension plan.

Rather than saddle customers with more than $1 billion in new costs, Canada Post continues to remain at the table to negotiate an agreement that is reasonable and affordable. In the event of a full disruption, Canada Post will not operate, deliver or accept new items. We will keep you updated on our progress.

Thank you for your business and your continued patience.

Sincerely,
Serge Pitre
Vice-president, Sales
Canada Post Corporation

[rose-dee]

"However, if the parties are unable to successfully conclude negotiations within that period, both parties must agree to binding arbitration."  

Once again, the Corporation is putting itself in the position of dictating the parameters for resolution.  That isn't going to go over well with the Union. 

I'm leaving my store on vacation until Monday noon to see where things stand by then.  

[ricarmic]

I won't reopen till the union agrees, 30 days would be great that would take me to my natural vacation time anyway.....

[fort2b]

---

@rose-dee wrote:

Thanks very much for posting this 'skylar' and keeping us up to date.  

I had to laugh on reading this: "A short-term extension, as proposed by the union, with the continued threat of a work disruption will not reverse this severe decline."

Ahem, Mr. Chopra, reality check: the only threat of a work disruption so far has come from the Corporation, and it's that threat which has resulted in the decline of volume.  The inference in this statement is that the Union is somehow to blame for both. 

Just more disingenuous and cynical manipulation of public opinion.  No wonder they can't negotiate in good faith.

---

 Not really, it was the threat of a strike, after the Union's strike vote that caused a big decline in mail volumes.  CP's threat to lockout is an attempt to force a quick resolution to negotiations, rather than drag them out, as the Union wants to.

At this point you probably think I am pro management and anti union.  I'm not.  In fact until yesterday morning I was for CUPW and had stated repeatedly that CP and Chopra were the big problem  

But once Palecek rebuffed binding arbitration, with that lame 'on principle' excuse, that ended any sympathy I had for CUPW's cause and I could see what Palecek all about.

Binding arb always favours the union workers and never management.  That CP agreed to it was amazing to me......I hadn't dared dream they would.  That CUPW rejected it was even more amazing to me....it's a foolish decision, as will be proven in time.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@rose-dee wrote:

"However, if the parties are unable to successfully conclude negotiations within that period, both parties must agree to binding arbitration."  

Once again, the Corporation is putting itself in the position of dictating the parameters for resolution.  That isn't going to go over well with the Union. 

---

CUPW made an offer, Canada Post made a counter-offer.

Both sides have been doing the dictating.

[marnotom!]

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@fort2b wrote:

Interesting proposal from CUPW.  I wonder if CP will accept it.  CUPW made a similar request just a couple of weeks ago which CP turned down flat and shortly after that made their 'Final Offer'.

However, CP's position seems to have softened a bit since then, so they are probably getting some heat from behind the scenes (Government).   Not sure what a 30 day period will accomplish, with both sides so far apart.

The CUPW release says in it:

"Canada Post is demanding concessions from the postal workers and has budged very little over the past months"

Which is an interesting thing to say considering CUPW has not budged at all over the past few months.   Their demands are identical to what they were. 

---

My understanding is that the union's proposals have so far seen very little discussion and this is one reason "negotiations" have dragged on for so long.  The union can't budge from their position on issues that haven't been discussed in the first place!

Also keep in mind that the last time CUPW went on strike, they were legislated back to work with a contract that didn't address a lot of their concerns.  There's a lot of "old business" that needs to be dealt with here if Canada Post is serious about not just negotiating a deal, but building a new relationship with CUPW.

[marnotom!]

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@ypdc_dennis wrote:

---

@rose-dee wrote:

"However, if the parties are unable to successfully conclude negotiations within that period, both parties must agree to binding arbitration."  

Once again, the Corporation is putting itself in the position of dictating the parameters for resolution.  That isn't going to go over well with the Union. 

---

CUPW made an offer, Canada Post made a counter-offer.

Both sides have been doing the dictating.

---

I think what rose-dee's point is is that Canada Post wanted to dictate the terms of the binding arbitration process.

A big worry from the union is that the employer could subject any arbitrated settlement to a judicial review, making a mockery of the whole process.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-post-lockout-deadline-extended-1.3668182

[fort2b]

that's not a valid concern.   Binding arbitration is often done in these types of disputes.  It takes a long time but in the end, the Unions come out favourably.   And the members get big retroactive pay increase cheques..   Palecek is just stalling.  His plan may be to drag this into the Christmas season where he feels he will have great leverage with CP.

[marnotom!]

---

@fort2b wrote:

that's not a valid concern.   Binding arbitration is often done in these types of disputes.  It takes a long time but in the end, the Unions come out favourably.   And the members get big retroactive pay increase cheques..   Palecek is just stalling.  His plan may be to drag this into the Christmas season where he feels he will have great leverage with CP.

---

This doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  If the union does stand to come out ahead in binding arbitration, there's no reason to reject it.

[momcqueen]

No reason other than to be contrary. 

[marnotom!]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:

No reason other than to be contrary. 

---

If that's the case, I don't think it would being contrary for the sake of being contrary.

Don't forget that CUPW was legislated back to work the last time they went on strike and the terms of the imposed contract didn't deal with a schwack of concerns the union had.  I suspect that they're worried about more stuff getting put on the back burner if they had to go to binding arbitration.

[momcqueen]

Seven months of negations haven't moved any of those old issues any closer to the front-burner.

Negations have failed. A conciliator has failed. Lockout is pending. Binding arbitration is offered. There is nowhere else to go from here. I don't have a side picked in this dispute, I don't care about either of their arguments. I am looking at this from a bird's eye view. And I don't want my business to suffer any longer than it has to. 

[dutchman48]

The whole problem is one word, Palecek!

[mcrlmn]

Time to privatize.

[dutchman48]

The government needs to get off their derrieres and get some actual legislation in place to put a stop to the postal unions ridiculous non negotiations. Previous history should have taught therm that

They do it every time and it continually gets worse and the government does nothing to prevent it.

Privatization would be impossible at this time due to the union employees and the fact that a private company would never deliver mail to all the locations CP is forced to or we would all be subsidizing that cost, or their costs would be huge.

Same reason couriers hand stuff over to CP.

[skylarstuff]

Prepared to talk without a “poison pill” for free collective bargaining

Friday July 8 2016

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.

“We have been crystal clear from the beginning we want a negotiated settlement. We want to have meaningful discussions with management, but getting a guaranteed bail-out from an arbitrator at the end of it isn’t the incentive they need to stop playing these games with the public,” said Mike Palecek, national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which is facing a lock-out on Monday, July 11th.

“Our bosses at Canada Post could just sit there for 30 days, refuse to discuss our proposals, as they have been doing for months, and then wait things out in the legal system for years,” said Palecek.

“The public and postal workers need certainty. We have never wavered while Canada Post has been inconsistent. For example, they said they wouldn’t lock us out and now we’re living with their threat to lock us out,” said Palecek, adding “with their current proposal, the only certainty is that we would again lose our constitutionally guaranteed right to free collective bargaining.”

Postal workers recently won a court challenge to legislation forcing them back to work after Canada Post locked them out in 2011, which was ruled illegal and unconstitutional by the courts as it violated free collective bargaining guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“We believe that Canadians cherish their constitutional freedoms,” said Palecek.

The union renews its call for a thirty day cooling-off period and meaningful negotiations.

[fort2b]

Seems to be.  I think Palecek wants glory.  He wants to be the guy that beats CP.  If he agrees to arbitration, he'll just fade into the backround and be a nobody again.

[marnotom!]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:

Seven months of negations haven't moved any of those old issues any closer to the front-burner.

Negations have failed. A conciliator has failed. Lockout is pending. Binding arbitration is offered. There is nowhere else to go from here. I don't have a side picked in this dispute, I don't care about either of their arguments. I am looking at this from a bird's eye view.

---

You forgot the part about CUPW filing a complaint with the Industrial Relations Board of bad faith bargaining on Canada Post's part.  Could this be why negotiations and conciliation have failed?

[momcqueen]

All the better reason to accept the guidance of a neutral third party.

[marnotom!]

It would make more sense to determine first whether the employer has been trying to circumvent the bargaining process in order to leapfrog to binding arbitration now that legislation no longer appears to be an option.

It doesn't send a good message that employers can waste their employees' time in unproductive negotiations only to have an arbitrator step in like a white knight.

If Canada Post feels it's been bargaining in good faith, why put in the poison pill clause about binding arbitration after the 30 day cooling off period?

[momcqueen]

What's the point of a 30-day cooling off period?