August 1, 2012                            Bulletin No. 100

Urban Negotiations: CUPW Studies CPC’s New Offer

Today the Urban Operations Negotiations Committee met to examine the unexpected offer that was recently presented to the Union by Canada Post Corporation.

New Demands

The new offer includes many demands which were no longer outstanding in June 2011; and also includes several demands that were never raised by management during the nine months of negotiations during 2010-2011.

Some of the new demands from Canada Post include:

• Reduced job security.
• Elimination of the wash-up periods.
• Reduced early retirement provisions for current employees.
• Elimination of the protection of 493 retail counters.
• Elimination of the protections against contracting out of VES work.

Unclear Demands

There are also many aspects of the Employers proposal which are not clear.

Some of the unclear proposals from Canada Post include:

• The impact of the pension changes on current employees.
• The COLA formula.
• Impact of the elimination of the wash-up period for all employees.
• Impact of the elimination of the paid meal period for new employees.
• The impact of the new wage scale on temporary workers.
• The meaning of “a new post-retirement health care plan” for retirees.
• The meaning of “minor housekeeping changes” to retiree benefits.
• The changes being proposed to Appendix V(1) and CC to include time certainty.
• The changes being proposed to the work rules of Groups 3 and 4.
• The changes being proposed to the arbitrators list.

Union Seeking Clarification

Prior to responding to CPC, the Union is seeking clarification on these and other issues which are unclear in the employer’s proposal.

Benefit Concessions Won’t Generate Mail Volumes

While we are waiting for the employer to reply to our questions it is important to consider that lower labour costs will do nothing to generate new revenues for Canada Post or add new letter volumes into the mail stream. CPC should follow the lead of other postal administrations and look to expansion, innovation, and the introduction of new revenue generating services. It does not take skill or imagination to demand rollbacks and concessions. CPC has tremendous assets which include the largest fleet of vehicles in the country, the most extensive retail network and daily delivery to households and businesses in every community.

We need a management that will utilize these assets to build a secure future for the public postal service and its workers.

In Solidarity,

Denis Lemelin

National President and Chief Negotiator

 

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