Latest news with #CanadianUnionofPostalWorkers
Edmonton Journal
2 days ago
- Politics
- Edmonton Journal
Postal workers protest 'final offer' from Canada Post
Article content Ottawa postal workers, with support from Ontario and Quebec locals, protested on Saturday against Canada Post's demand that they be forced to vote on the company's 'final offer.' Gathering in front of the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights monument near city hall, leaders from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers decried what they said was an attack on the public post office.
Ottawa Citizen
3 days ago
- Business
- Ottawa Citizen
Postal workers protest 'final offer' from Canada Post
Ottawa postal workers, with support from Ontario and Quebec locals, protested on Saturday against Canada Post's demand that they be forced to vote on the company's 'final offer.' Article content Article content Gathering in front of the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights monument near city hall, leaders from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers decried what they said was an attack on the public post office. Article content Article content The crowd of around 90 heard speeches and chanted 'Hands off my post office' before marching to the prime minister's office on nearby Wellington Street. Article content Article content 'Our public post office is under attack. Canada Post is pushing cuts that are going to harm you, the workers, but also harm the Canadian public,' Jan Simpson, CUPW's national president, said at the rally. Article content The union announced a nationwide overtime ban for its 55,000 workers on May 23 as they began escalating toward strike action. On Saturday, similar rallies took place across Canada as the union sought to send a message to Canada Post about its vision for the future of the struggling public service. Article content Article content Article content The union has also criticized Canada Post for asking Minister of Jobs and Families Patty Hajdu to direct that a vote take place on an offer made Wednesday. What Canada Post called its 'final offer,' included a signing bonus of $500 or $1,000, the removal of compulsory overtime and other items. Article content In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen, Simpson said that forcing a vote on the last offer was not the best way to solve the labour dispute. Simpson said many issues that caused the strike remained on the table, including route ownership from letter carriers, closing of retail storefronts and downsizing of the public post office.
Toronto Star
4 days ago
- Business
- Toronto Star
Canada Post asks government to force vote on their latest offer
Canada Post has asked the government to force the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) to have its members vote on their latest offer, according to a release sent out on Friday. The Crown corporation says it has asked Patty Hadju, federal minister of jobs and families, to use her authority under the Canadian Labour Code to call a vote, administered by the Canada Industrial Relations Board, on what management is calling their final offer, which was released two days ago.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Canada Post asks government to hold employee vote on contract offer
Canada Post late Friday asked the federal government to conduct a vote of unionized mail carriers on its latest contract proposal after leadership of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) publicly trashed management's offer. The postal operator urged the minister of jobs and families to direct the Canada Industrial Relations Board to hold a vote on the final offer submitted to the union on Wednesday. The request to bypass the union's negotiating team suggests Canada Post believes there is more support for the offer among rank-and-file members than the union has indicated. Canada Post acknowledged that the sides ideally would craft a collective bargaining agreement on their own without third-party arbitration, but 'given the level of the impasse and CUPW's negotiating position, it is not possible to reach tentative agreements in the normal course,' it said in a statement explaining the need for third-party administration of a vote. 'We believe the best hope of achieving freely negotiated collective agreements is an employee vote administered by the CIRB under [Canadian labor law]. In these circumstances, employees in each bargaining unit would have the opportunity to voice their decision by voting on Canada Post's final offers.' The parties have been negotiating since November 2023 but are far apart on a deal despite months of conciliation and mediation by the government. Canada Post is seeking structural reforms and operational flexibility to address steep drops in letter mail and parcel shipping. The CUPW is calling for a substantial bump in pay while opposing changes to the way mail carriers are assigned to routes and to the use of part-time carriers represented by the union were on strike for nearly five weeks late last year, during which time mail and parcels were not processed or delivered, and post offices were closed. The minister of labor intervened and ordered union members back to work on Dec. 17, with terms of the existing collective bargaining agreement extended until May 22, while a commission assessed the labor dispute and challenges facing Canada Post. The CUPW backed off a threat to initiate a strike last Friday, opting instead for a national ban on overtime work while it considered another Canada Post offer. The latest proposal adopts recommendations, such as part-time weekend shifts and leveling loads between routes, from the Industrial Inquiry Commission. The postal operator accused the CUPW of intransigence, saying its position 'remains entirely at odds with the findings and recommendations of the IIC. Furthermore, CUPW has recently retracted its tentative agreement on key issues reached earlier this year.' Canada Post said Wednesday that the 32-day strike last year was responsible for a quarter of its $611 million pretax loss and that the specter of another strike has caused parcel volumes in late May to fall by two-thirds year over here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch. Canada Post makes 'final' offer for labor deal amid growing losses Canada Post parcel volumes drop 50% as labor dispute compounds challenges Canada Post avoids crippling strike but not damage to parcel business Small businesses at risk as Canada Post workers prepare to strike The post Canada Post asks government to hold employee vote on contract offer appeared first on FreightWaves.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Canada Post Presents ‘Final Offers' to Union, Who Says Labor Battle is ‘Far from Over'
Canada Post put out what it said was its 'final offers' to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) on Wednesday as both parties remain deadlocked in negotiations for new contracts for urban and rural mail carriers. The 50,000 CUPW-represented postal workers instituted a nationwide overtime ban after the negotiation deadline ended on Friday. Rallies are planned across Canada on Saturday. More from Sourcing Journal Canada Post Workers Begin Overtime Ban After Failing to Reach Deal Canada Cools US Trade Tensions By Drawing Down Retaliatory Duties Canadian Courier Strike Risks Intensify at Canada Post, DHL Express According to the national courier, the newest offers include a signing bonus of up to $1,000 Canadian dollars ($728) depending on role, the elimination of mandatory overtime for the urban unit and lower inflation thresholds for cost-of-living allowance payments across all employees. But the offers did not include any improvement over the prior cumulative wage increase proposal of 14 percent over four years, or any response to the union's concerns about contracting out deliveries to third parties. The union also took umbrage with Canada Post's contention that part-time flex staffing and weekend delivery and dynamic routing for urban employees are both 'non-negotiable.' 'Canada Post says this was its final offer. But this fight is far from over,' union president Jan Simpson said in response. Canada's Minister of Jobs and Families Patty Hajdu and Secretary of State for Labour John Zerucelli are meeting with union officials in Ottawa on Friday to discuss the negotiations. While the overtime ban isn't the full-blown strike that Canada Post and its customers had worried about, 'uncertainty related to the recent resumption of strike activity has caused the company's business to drop significantly,' the courier said in a statement. Delivered parcel volumes are down 65 percent from the same time last year as of Wednesday, according to Canada Post, down from the 50-percent annual drop already experienced at the end of the week prior. The talks coincided with the release of Canada Post's annual report, which revealed that the Crown corporation posted a pre-tax loss of $841 million Canadian dollars ($610 million). Since 2018, Canada Post has racked up pre-tax losses of $3.8 billion Canadian dollars ($2.8 billion). The last time the parcel delivery firm made a profit was 2017. The original month-long strike during the 2024 holiday season took a massive toll on Canada Post's losses in 2024, with negative impact amounting to $208 million Canadian dollars ($151 million). Parcels revenue and volumes—which had already declined through the first three quarters—fell sharply for the full year, by 20.3 percent and 19.9 percent, respectively. The strike, alongside the entrance of more low-cost last-mile delivery entrants in the space, were the primary reasons for the declines. Letter mail, which initially was the backbone of Canada's post office, has seen a substantial decline as well. While Canada Post delivered 5.5 billion letters in 2006, that number since dwindled to 2 billion in 2024 despite there being 3.3 million more addresses throughout the country. On these grounds, the company called its delivery model both 'outdated' and 'unsustainable' various times throughout its annual report. 'Our current structure was built for a bygone era of letter mail—the status quo has led us to the verge of financial insolvency and is not an option,' Doug Ettinger, president and CEO of Canada Post, said in a statement. 'The need to change, respond to our challenges and secure this important infrastructure for the future is more urgent than ever before.' Simpson responded to the report saying that it left out important details, namely a 'failure to raise stamp rates before 2025, even though every other major postal operator raised rates significantly between 2018-2023.' She said the report did not identify how much in costs were related to the Covid-19 pandemic. As the battle at Canada Post rages on, DHL Express preps for a possible work stoppage throughout the country. A group of 2,500 union truck drivers, couriers, warehouse and clerical workers at DHL Express are scheduled to meet with company representatives at the bargaining table this Sunday to continue negotiations on a new deal. Talks are expected to last from Sunday throughout the next week, until June 8. The DHL employees are represented by 320,000-member Unifor, Canada's largest private sector union. Although both parties have already been at the negotiating table for a new contract for 25 days, both sides remain far apart on all issues, the union says. DHL Express has said it is committed to negotiating in good faith, and that the parties have 'made some progress.'
