The upcoming negotiations are crucial for the future of every CUPW member employed at Canada Post Corporation. Job security, wages, benefits, pensions, working conditions – everything is determined by what happens in collective bargaining.

Many Questions

This year we enter negotiations with some unknown circumstances. In the Government's Canada Post Review, both the task force and the parliamentary committee have studied Canada Post's operations and finances and made recommendations. But the Liberal government still has not announced their decision as to what direction it wants Canada Post to take. They may agree with CUPW and the public and instruct Canada Post to increase its services to the public. Or they may continue the direction of the previous Conservative government and order more cutbacks or privatization. We also do not know what the impact of the resignation of Deepak Chopra may have on negotiations. During both the 2011 and 2016 negotiations Mr. Chopra preferred to serve lock-out notices to CUPW rather than negotiate with us. Normally his departure would be taken as good news but we still do not know who will replace him and what mandate the government will provide to the next president. Finally we also do not know what result will come from the pay equity process we negotiated in 2016.

Our Comprehensive Program

Faced with these uncertainties we are proposing a comprehensive program of demands which will ensure that no matter what the government decides, or what the result of the Pay Equity process, we will have demands which enable us to address all important issues at the bargaining table. That is why, in addition to demands on job security, wages, benefits and working conditions you will also find demands addressing services to the public, which will also provide jobs for CUPW members, add revenues to Canada Post Corporation and also address the environment.

As you can see the demands also address the needs of many members. We have demands to provide an additional increase to the minimum rates of pay and reduce the number of years it takes to reach the maximum rate. This will help all new employees and will especially help temporary workers and OCRE. We also are addressing the need for Maintenance workers to receive a pay adjustment. Negotiating increased evening and shift premiums will create an incentive for management to schedule more work during the dayshift. And we have several demands which are designed to eliminate the overburdening of RSMC and letter carriers and ensure that routes are structured properly. Also we have demands to address the internal workers' (Group 1) issues.

Likewise for RSMCs we are determined to negotiate basic rights that urban unit workers are entitled to such as job security, guaranteed hours of work, hourly rates clearly stated in the collective agreement and pay for all hours worked including overtime.

Many Common Demands But Separate Votes

Since we legally have two separate collective agreements urban and RSMC members must vote separately on their respective programs of demands. As you can see most of the demands apply to both bargaining units. That is why our goal is one collective agreement. We have listed demands C.1 to C.25 which are included in both the Urban and RSMC Programs of Demands. In addition we have demands U.1 to U.6 –which are included in the Urban program, and demands R.1 to R.5 – which are included in the RSMC program.

Working Together for Victory

Although we have two separate programs of demands, we have once again decided to have both the urban and rural negotiating committees work together. As in 2016 we will stick together and plan our bargaining strategy and actions. Canada Post management will know that we are prepared, united and strong together.

Strength Through Action

We were able to negotiate a no-concessions agreement with improvements in 2016 because the government and employer knew we were united. Throughout the summer of 2016 postal workers were on the streets, lobbying, meeting MPs, demonstrating, attending exhibitions and fairs, and taking a wide variety of workplace actions to let the employer and government know we were prepared to fight for our rights. We were everywhere, we were noticed and we gained the support of the public.

In the upcoming bargaining we will have to be just as active and mobilized as we were in 2016. Maybe even more so.

These negotiations will not only determine our job security, wages, benefits and working conditions, they will shape the future of the postal service and our future with it. Stick together. Be United. Stay Strong.

Mike Palecek

National President

for the National Executive Board