DHL reaches tentative deal with striking workers
Sivadas Santosh, lead negotiator for Unifor, said that union representatives and DHL spent most of Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning hashing out a deal, and managed to come to an agreement that the union was somewhat content with.
'We didn't get everything we wanted, but we got some big wage wins,' Mr. Santosh said.
Unifor and DHL settled on a four-year agreement with a cumulative wage increase of 15.75 per cent. The agreement is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2025, and workers will also get a $500 lump-sum bonus.
The union had wanted a 15-per-cent wage increase spread over a three-year agreement. DHL was offering a 15-per-cent pay bump spread over four years.
Unifor's previous agreement with DHL, which was active between January, 2020, and January, 2025, included annual wage increases of 2.5 per cent.
Approximately 2,100 DHL Express Canada workers across Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec – mainly truck drivers, couriers and warehouse workers – were locked out by DHL on June 8, after bargaining stalled over wages and the way in which drivers get paid for delivery routes.
The union subsequently declared a strike and DHL temporarily shut down operations across the country.
DHL Express Canada locks out 2,100 workers as Unifor launches strike in response
Why Canada Post talks have stalled after months of negotiations with unionized workers
On Tuesday, Unifor accused DHL of using replacement workers at its facility in Hamilton, which would violate a new federal law that prohibits the use of replacement workers during lockouts or strikes. Unifor filed a complaint with the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
The other sticking point in negotiations was how delivery drivers get paid for a day's worth of work. Unifor said that its members sometimes had to drive up to 100 kilometres to reach a meetup point where they would pick up freight and then begin doing deliveries in an area. The drivers were not compensated for driving to that meetup point. Mr. Santosh said the new agreement addresses the issue by ensuring the union has a say in the distance each driver must travel to reach a meetup point.
'This way DHL cannot arbitrarily change the route and add distance to it,' he said.
Drivers at DHL get paid between $19 and $30 an hour, depending on how many years they have worked at the company. Hourly wages for clerical staff range between $17 and $27.
In a statement, DHL said it expected to resume operations after the deal was ratified. The union has recommended that its members vote in favour of the deal and return to work.
Some of DHL's largest customers include Shein, Temu and Lululemon. The company is one of five major parcel delivery operators in Canada, alongside FedEx Corp., Canada Post, United Parcel Service Inc. and TFI International Inc. According to Unifor, DHL workers make up roughly 15 per cent of all courier workers in the country.
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