Canada Post employees return to work and hope Canadians will take up their cause
Canadians should start receiving mail again on Tuesday, after Canada Post workers shifted from nationwide strike action on Saturday morning to a gradual strike.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which represents 55,000 Canada Post employees, says the fight for a fair collective agreement continues, but the downgraded labor action allows workers to resume their jobs and reminds Canadians that a full postal service is worth fighting for.
“Most of our workers are back at work, people can go out and talk to the public,” said CUPW negotiator Jim Gallant. “The public sees what value there is in the post office.”
The union and Canada Post have been trying to negotiate a new collective agreement for more than a year and a half. But this is not the union’s only fight. postal worker The nationwide strike began two weeks ago after the federal government announced sweeping changes to the Crown corporation – the second since last year.
Ottawa has called on Canada Post to end home deliveries and close some rural mail outlets in a bid to stabilize the debt-ridden company and ensure its survival. The Crown corporation has not been profitable since 2017, Report of loss of 1.3 billion dollars Last year. it says it is On track to lose $1.5 billion this yearSurviving with $1 billion of government debt. (CUPW has suggested that Canada Post is exaggerating some of these figures. The company did not respond to CBC’s request for comment on the claim.)
CUPW has pledged to fight Ottawa’s announced reforms, and is hoping Canadians will take up the issue.
Gallant said, “(Ottawa) is going to cut off its arms and legs. The service will not be what it should be. It will not be what Canadians need.” “Canadians need to call their MP; they need to go to their city council.”
Labor expert Rafael Gomez says the union faces a tough challenge: negotiating a new collective agreement while simultaneously facing public opposition to Ottawa’s planned cuts.
“You have to balance it because if it’s not disruptive, the employer will have no real costs to bear,” said Gomez, an employment relations professor at the University of Toronto. “If it is too disruptive, the public is affected.
“It’s a balancing act.”
Beware of mail delays
CUPW’s Gallant says continued strikes will cause delays in mail delivery in some parts of Canada. He also indicated that workers could resume the nationwide strike at any time.
“Individuals will continue to be off work for the next period of time until either we have a collective agreement or the union decides to modify our strike activity,” he said.
Still, the resumption of mail delivery is welcome news for Katherine Gallagher Morton, founder of Mapalia, a small business that sells Canadian-themed dolls online.
She is set to mail thousands of print catalogs next week featuring her dolls, the biggest driver of the business’s holiday sales.
When Gallagher Morton heard the news, she said, “I was thrilled.” “It makes a huge difference to our company and what we will be able to do this Christmas.”
However, she says she will not be sending a letter to her local MP, asking the federal government to defund the traditional postal service.
Due to the Canada Post strike last year, Gallagher Morton says it lost more than $300,000 in sales. This prompted her to permanently switch to private delivery for most doll deliveries. Although she still relies on Canada Post to deliver catalogs, she says that, like Ottawa, she supports the smaller postal service.
“I’m a Canadian who pays taxes and I think the government should act as fiscally responsible as possible,” she said. “The whole world has to change. Times are changing, and I think Canada Post needs to change its model.”
Canada Post responds
Canada Post said in a statement Friday that it welcomes its employees back, but warned customers of “uncertainty and instability” in service due to continued strikes.
The Crown corporation also said it is ready to return to the bargaining table, and that it is still waiting for its response from the union. Latest offer, made on October 3,
This includes a 13.59 percent salary increase over four years, health and retirement benefits and up to seven weeks of vacation. But it also removes a signing bonus that the corporation says it can no longer afford.
The union representing 55,000 Canada Post employees has announced it will end its Canada-wide strike action and move to sequential strikes starting this weekend. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says the change will “freeze up the flow of mail and parcels.”
CUPW said in a statement last week that the latest proposal was “a major step backward.”
However, Canada Post has given no indication that it plans to improve the deal, and it continues to support the government’s plan for a smaller postal service.
“The need to adapt business to the current needs of the country while reducing our reliance on taxpayer dollars is becoming more urgent every day as this strike continues,” it said in a statement.
