האגודה הישראלית לחקר יחסי עבודה

The RSMC (rural and suburban mail carrier) is fighting for, among other things, pay equity; RSMCs are paid 28 per cent less than urban letter carriers. Seventy per cent of the bargaining unit’s 8,000 workers are women, said Craig Dyer, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 126.

“Tammy, here in Paradise, has the exact same job as I do in St. John’s,” said Dyer. “Tammy makes 28 per cent less than what I do for doing the exact same thing. I could walk into Paradise and do Tammy’s route; Tammy could walk into St. John’s and do my route. It’s not that different.”

Newhook, who has been working for Canada Post since 2008, shared some of her frustrations with The Telegram.

“I’m very frustrated with the whole fact that we don’t get paid overtime. We get paid a cent a flyer, whereas mail carriers get paid 5 cents a flyer. We don’t have a corporate vehicle. I have to pay a $1-million commercial vehicle insurance a year, which costs me $100 a month — to work for Canada Post to deliver their mail — out of my own pocket,” she said.

“The biggest thing that frustrates me is they say they’re all for customer service. When I go out of my way to deliver parcels that are past the given kilometre rate that I’m supposed to go, because I know that there is a disabled person, or there’s a person that can’t get to the box, because I know he had a stroke, I do that out of my own gas money. They’re all, ‘customer service, customer service,’ but they won’t give us the money to pay to deliver their merchandise. It’s very frustrating. I’m very angry at Canada Post now.”

She said she and her colleagues love their jobs, but feel held back by the corporation for these reasons.

Deadline looming

Dyer is not confident an agreement will be reached any time soon.

“Aug. 25 is the end of our strike notice under the law, so we’ve got two more weeks to try to negotiate a collective agreement for the for the RSMCs and for the urban ops, or there’s three choices,” said Dyer.

“One is that the corporation can agree to extend the 60-day strike/lockout notice. We don’t believe that’s going to happen, simply because we believe they’ve been sitting on their hands for the last five weeks.

“We can take another strike vote, which takes weeks and weeks and weeks because we represent from Vancouver to St. John’s, Northwest Territories, and have many, many locals across the country, and it’s very time consuming.

“Or we can serve notice, or they can serve notice to lock us out. So the next two weeks are really important.”

Dyer said the corporation hasn’t addressed the “big-ticket issues” such as pensions, health and safety for letter carriers and classification for mechanics and technicians.

“They’re willing to talk, but they’re not willing to negotiate and sign off on stuff, so it’s the belief of our local executive that they’re going to wait again until Aug. 25, and that’s not good enough.

“We know that Prime Minister Trudeau is in town on Monday and we’d love the opportunity to speak with him. We need Mr. Trudeau and his government to step in and say, ‘Negotiate in good faith.’”

Progress ‘discouraging’

Serge Pitre, Canada Post’s vice-president of sales, provided an update on negotiations Aug. 9 on the corporation’s website. He said progress in the talks “is discouraging.”

“We remain committed to our goal of reaching agreements that are fair to our employees. At the same time, the agreements must allow us to continue to provide affordable pricing and service to our customers and all Canadians,” Pitre wrote.

He said Canada Post wants to negotiate without the threat of a lockout, and although the union said it doesn’t want to strike, “a threat of a 72-hour notice to strike is always a real possibility.

“I know these updates are not providing you with the certainty you need to conduct your business. I wish the news could be more encouraging.”

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