Canada Post officials say the latest offer from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) would add billions of dollars in unsustainable fixed costs.
“Canada Post has carefully reviewed the latest offers from the CUPW and determined that the union’s demands are unaffordable and unsustainable – adding billions of dollars in long-term fixed costs,” Canada Post officials said in a media release on December 11, 2024.
“Added up, all the demands in CUPW’s latest offers would cost more than $3-billion over four years, at a time when the postal service is already recording large financial losses. Some of the big-ticket items include wage increases and staffing changes. Canada Post will record another significant loss in 2024, the seventh consecutive annual loss for the Corporation. Since 2018, Canada Post has lost more than $3-billion.”
Canada Post officials say the union’s demands would also further reinforce the status quo, when the postal service must transform to meet the changing needs of Canadians and businesses.
“The latest CUPW offers for the Urban and RSMC (Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers) units do not address Canada Post’s urgent requirements to modernize its operations,” Canada Post officials say.
“We understand the strike is having a huge impact on employees, small businesses, charities and communities across the country. We remain committed to reaching negotiated agreements and have put forward proposals that are fair, balanced and would bring much-needed flexibility to our delivery model. We wanted to share more information on CUPW’s latest offer, why it is far from where we need to be, and how it’s widening the gap in negotiations.”
Here is the information provided by Canada Post:
– Wages: The union has proposed wage increases of 19% over four years – including a 9% increase in the first year – while Canada Post has offered wage hikes of 11.5% over four years (11.97% compounded). While we recognize that CUPW has moved on its wage demands, the union’s proposal remains well beyond what the Corporation can afford, given its significant losses and deteriorating financial position.
– Personal/medical days: CUPW is demanding 10 medical days a year on top of the seven personal days already in the collective agreement. Canada Post is proposing 13 multi-use personal days per year, protected and built into the collective agreement. This includes the six additional personal days per year that employees received as a result of changes to the Canada Labour Code in 2022. Employees would have flexibility on how to use the six additional days (e.g. personal day, vacation, sick leave, etc.).
– Making contracted staff permanent employees: The union continues to focus on adding workers they don’t represent, which would add further unsustainable long-term fixed costs for Canada Post. For example, CUPW continues to demand that our facility cleaning staff and other contracted support services become permanent Canada Post employees. Canada Post encourages CUPW to focus on the terms and conditions of employment for the people they actually represent.
– Flexible and affordable delivery: To better serve customers and align with their evolving needs, we need a delivery model that allows us to deliver seven days a week and more quickly adapt to the growing ecommerce market. Canada Post has proposed creating new staffing positions that would support weekend delivery, providing permanent jobs with guaranteed hours and benefits. The Corporation has also proposed measures (dynamic routing) that would allow it to plan and optimize delivery routes based on volumes, delivery addresses and pickups. Although the Corporation has signaled that a dynamic routing model is necessary to secure its future and remain competitive, the union has refused to engage or propose any solutions regarding dynamic routing.
In a media release issued on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, CUPW officials said in their most recent proposals to Canada Post, the Union addressed many issues the Employer had first brought to the bargaining table.
“Far from trying to ‘widen the gap in negotiations,’ the Union’s intention is to help the parties come to negotiated agreements,” stated Jan Simpson, national president of CUPW.
“CUPW wants nothing more than for its members to have good collective agreements, with their rights protected.”
Here is some information provided by CUPW:
– Overtime: The Union agreed to allow the Employer to take potential 15.08 overtime from route holders and assign work at straight time to unassigned relief and part-timers on extension. This is a cost savings to CPC.
– Relief Complement: The Union agreed to a combined relief complement to cover vacation and other absences. All depots will have a minimum “base” relief of 22% of the full-time assignments. In place of bar charts, there will be a new method to calculate additional relief that will account for all absences on a quarterly basis. This will allow for greater coverage of absences at straight time and less 17.04 overtime. This is another cost savings to CPC.
– Peak Period: The Union agreed to extend the length of the Peak Period and allow Canada Post to start training Peak Period temporary employees beginning in October.
– Groups 3 and 4: The Union agreed to allow employees in the MAM 10 and 11 classifications to transfer voluntarily into the ELE-3 classification, while maintaining their current salary scale.
– Conversion of RSMC Permanent Relief Employee to Permanent Flex Employee: The Union agreed to convert all RSMC Permanent Relief Employees (PRE) to Permanent Flex Employees (PFE). PFE will be guaranteed a minimum of 20 scheduled hours per week but can be assigned to work up to 40. PFE will mainly cover absences, but they will also be able to work weekend parcel delivery assignments.
“This is a sample, not a complete list, of the proposals the Union made to the Employer to bring the parties closer to negotiated agreements. We will provide further details in the upcoming days, Simpson added, in a media release.
“Your Negotiators thank all members for their support on the picket lines. Without it, we could not have gotten this far.”
Some 55,000 postal workers represented by CUPW went on a nationwide strike on Friday, November 15 at 12:01 a.m.
