President's Message July 2012
Postal Workers recently received a letter from Canada Post president, Deepak Chopra. Not surprisingly management is singing the same old tune about mail erosion and pension deficits on the heals of forced arbitration. The reality about so called mail erosion is that for the last 25 years the Post Office has been going through a transition of what people are sending by mail. It is not a coincidence that Mr. Chopra is saying the same things his predecessors said during periods of contract turmoil. We always hear that the sky is falling but of course the problems are exaggerated to extract concessions from the workers.
Oddly enough Mr. Chopra also claims that, “While the company was under no obligation to implement pay increases, we decided to do so last year.” I guess Mr. Chopra did not read Bill C-6, section 15, which imposed a wage settlement by the Harper Conservatives retroactive from February 1, 2011, for Urban Operations members. And Mr. Chopra's reference to the renewal of a new collective agreement as a “stumbling block” rings hollow as the government and Canada Post keep trying to impose an unfair one sided contract with biased arbitrators. If management negotiated a settlement with the Union there would have been no losses last year. Instead they locked us out and continue to manipulate to arbitration process.
The Local under the direction of our National Director worked out a settlement for the fast track letter carrier restructure grievances filed for the two Oakville depots in June. The agreement will see a rearranging of work and a post implementation verification. Bidding is to take place in August and the new routes will start in September. The post implementation verification is to begin in November 2012. The Union would have preferred a shorter time line for the verification of the routes but going back in from to the arbitrator would only have caused more delays.
The Union has won the forced back grievance, N00-07-00028, for the Urban Operations letter carriers. From 2009 leading up to the lock out in the summer last year, Canada Post was bypassing the contractual process for dealing with staffing shortages in letter carrier depots and repeatedly forced letter carriers to take overtime. This was an unsafe practice and lead to many work refusals in a number of our depots. The Local along with our members took on the fight courageously and stood up management. The Hamilton Local along with Edmonton, Thunder Bay, Corner Brook, Saskatoon, and Fraser Valley West Locals presented documented and witness testimony at the arbitration. I want to take this opportunity to thank the shop stewards, letter carriers, and Executive officers, who took on this fight. Our Nationals representatives also took on the fight and won. It was a text book example of how the Union and its membership can coordinate their efforts to make the employer stop abusing us.
The Union at the National and Local levels are in disagreement with management's new reaching device for the Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers (RSMC). The device is suppose to replace the ergonomic helpers currently being used to assist members when they deliver the mail. Canada Post plans on training and implementing the new device in August 2012. The Union representatives on the National Joint Health & Safety Committee have demanded the employer not roll out the device until a full review has taken place. The Local is meeting with Canada Post in July to discuss the many safety and logistical issues facing RSMC's with the device.
The Local was notified by Canada Post in June of their intentions to close the Retail Counter at LCD 1 in Hamilton. Their leaflet claims that nearby franchises and ordering over the internet can serve customers for postal products. This is not entirely accurate because the corporate offices offer services franchises do not like admail. This would leave only the Meadowlands location in Ancaster on the mountain as the only corporate outlet in Hamilton. The Local also has retail corporate offices in Grimsby, Oakville, and Burlington.
The Local will be meeting with management to discuss the possible closure in July. National Union representatives will also be part of the consultation because the employer has been closing more retail counters across the country. It is unfortunate that management does not value unionized retail counters or the excellent service they provide the public. It is hypocritical for the boss to whine about pension liabilities but cut jobs whenever they can. It's not rocket science to figure out that less employees pay less in to the pension plan. In spite of the this, Canada Post keeps in lock step with the Harper Conservatives anti-worker, anti-union, low wage strategy.
In solidarity,
Mark Platt
President,
Hamilton Local 548