November 7, 2024 | by Kiri Vadivelu
Throughout the pandemic, postal workers across the Canadian state tirelessly worked to ensure the flow of important mail and parcels in order to reach every household. By collectively addressing the needs of the workers, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) presented their expectations without a hiccup. The least that Canada Post, a crown corporation, could do in return was to respect the collective bargaining process when the time for contract renewal arrived in 2024.
To keep pace with the cost of living, postal workers demand wage increases of 12.65 percent in Year 1 and 4.5 percent in Year 2, with further discussions on the length of the agreement and subsequent wage increases. Furthermore, CUPW asserts the need for job security, improved benefits, adequate staffing, guaranteed hours for permanent relief employees, improved rights for new hires, and no contracting-out or modification of work, such as a separate sort and delivery system (SSD).
Unfortunately, the Corporation dragged its feet, only presenting a wage offer nearly a year into bargaining and very far from what CUPW anticipated, as part of a document close to 500 pages in length. Canada Post raised the wage offer by 1.5 percent in 2024 to a compounded 11.97 percent over four years – a far cry from what Canadian postal workers deserve. The loss of $3 billion from 2018 to 2023 has little to do with wages and benefits.
Canada Post decided to build new facilities, upgrade working fleet vehicles, restructure delivery routes, hire more managers and add a layer of financial fat to already high-paid executives, without adequate consultations with those who actually bring revenue into the corporation. To add insult to the injury, Canada Post went to the media and claimed that all their fancy capital investments were routine expenses at negotiation time.
Canada Post states, “both parties must urgently focus their energies on resolving outstanding issues to reach negotiated agreements.” Union negotiators have been at the table for close to a year trying to do just that, but Canada Post continues to push for massive rollbacks that won’t help postal services, and that the union can never accept.
Putting the CUPW bargaining committee on the back-foot was always the plan. The corporation knows well that postal workers are not responsible for the pandemic, nor for inflation, nor will they take a pay cut. In a high turnout, over 95 percent of voting CUPW members authorized a strike mandate, showing vividly that they reject concessions. Pain is real for those who depend on a paycheque to make ends meet. Inflation is historically high and rents have tripled in the last 10 years while wages are no where close to meeting needs.
Canada Post is banking on building a false public perception that postal workers are demanding too much. Management would like Canadians to support government action to legislate posties back to work instead of agreeing to decent wages and benefits via negotiations. No CUPW member wants a strike, but if Canada Post Corporation refuses to negotiate in good faith, over one year into bargaining, a strike would be the result. For generations, postal workers have led the way for justice for all workers. In 1981, CUPW went on strike for 42 days to win 17 weeks of paid maternity leave. Millions of other workers benefited from this gain. Now is the time to return the favour with a huge wave of solidarity. Victory to CUPW! The struggle continues!
The author of the above article, Kiri Vadivelu, is a postal worker in Scarborough, Ontario.
