CANADIAN UNION OF POSTAL WORKERS

President's Message October 2012

As you may have heard by now the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has reached tentative agreements for the Urban Operations and Rural and Suburban bargaining units. Ratification votes will be held in Locals across the country in November and December 2012. The ratification votes in Hamilton will be on Monday, December 3, 2012, at the Sheraton Hotel in Hamilton, for the Urban members and on Wednesday, December 5, 2012, at the Holiday Inn in Burlington, Ontario, for the Rural and Suburban members. There will be bulletins sent out by the Local to every workplace to the bulletin boards and the shop stewards. There will also be a separate posting on the Local website of the date, times, and places, for the votes. You must be member in good standing to vote and attend in person. There is no proxy voting under the rules of our National Constitution. You also must vote in your own Local. The National Director of the Ontario Region, Gerry Deveau, will be at the meetings along with another member of the National Executive Board yet to be announced, as well as the Local Executive Committee.

The CUPW National Executive Board (NEB) is recommending the membership vote in favour of both tentative agreements. The NEB's rationale was that they felt taking a negotiated settlement now, regardless of the numerous rollbacks, was better then waiting for another government appointed arbitrator who was likely to accept Canada Post's offer in Final Offer arbitration which could possibly have been worse. Please take the time to read all the bulletins the National Union is posting on their website and sending to the Locals. There have been many national bulletins released so far and the information provided will assist the membership in coming to a decision on how to vote. There will be an opportunity at the ratification votes to ask the national executive board members in attendance questions about their decision and questions regarding the details of the tentative agreements. The Locals are to be provided copies of the tentative agreements to distribute the membership and we will do so as soon as possible.

The Hamilton Local Executive voted unanimously against recommending our membership vote in favour of both tentative agreements for a number of reasons. One of dissenting votes on the NEB was our Regional Director, Gerry Deveau, and he will be giving his rationale for voting no at the ratification votes. For the Urban contract it was clear that the Union's strategy of taking the federal government to court for the bias arbitrators they appointed and the constitutional challenge against the government for denying postal workers their collective bargaining rights was working. By voting no to the Urban contract the membership will remain under the current collective agreement until arbitration is complete which could take years and possibly into the next round of bargaining. If the members accept the employers offer the new Urban contract goes into effect January 2013, only two months from now.

Other major sticking points were the controversial Short Term Disability plan with Great West Life which hands decision making power for an absence caused by illness to an insurance company, not your doctor. No raise in the fourth year of the contract. No right to file a grievance against Great West Life. The reduction of Injury on Duty pay to 75% when the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board in Ontario pays 85%. We already have had a negative experience dealing with Great West Life for temporary and permanent accommodations. The companies offer of $200 for full time employees, and $100 for part time employees is insulting, especially when PSAC and APOC got significantly more to compensate for the loss of sick time. Most galling was the recent media reports that Canada Post paid out bonuses to 7,400 managers last year in spite of claiming financial losses and demanding so many rollbacks.

For the Rural and Suburban contract, the Local Executive was not in agreement with the pay zone model and the loss of being red circled once an employee changes a route or there is a reduction in calls of more then 20%. While is very important to raise the wages of the lowest paid RSMC's, it is unfair to the higher paid members to face wage cuts because of more lucrative contracts previously negotiated with Canada Post before they became employees. It is also unfair to receive a lower rate of pay because you live in a different part of the country. Canada Post has been aggressively restructuring RSMC routes over the last year and will continue to do so if it means paying the employees less.

The Local recently had a ratification vote for the new cleaners contract with BeeClean at the Hamilton Mail Processing Plant (HMPP) in Stoney Creek, Ontario. The membership voted in favour of the tentative agreement. The Local would like to thank the negotiating committee at the Regional Office and in particular the members from the shop floor who participated.

In solidarity,

Mark Platt

President,

Hamilton Local 548