Canada Post delivered its latest contract offer to striking postal workers Friday, but it doesn’t seem likely to end a dispute that has dragged on for more than 20 months.
The new offer includes three major steps back from the Crown corporation’s “final” offer rejected by members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers in August: It removes a signing bonus, lays the groundwork for major layoffs, and targets almost 500 urban and suburban post offices for potential closure.
“Canada Post’s new offers are within the limit of what the corporation can afford while maintaining good jobs and benefits for employees over the long-term,” Canada Post said in a written statement.
In an emailed statement before details of the offer were made public, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) slammed the federal government for giving the Crown corporation the green light last week for a major restructuring, but said it would review the offer.
“Our negotiations committees will carefully review and analyze the offers from Canada Post to determine whether they address the needs of postal workers, our families, and the public who depend on us,” the CUPW statement said. “Postal workers and the communities we serve deserve transparency and fairness. Any changes to our public postal service must be made through meaningful consultation, not unilateral action.”
The new offer is likely to inflame the union, argued Steven Tufts, a labour studies professor at York University.
“It’s going to irritate the union — I think that’s reasonable to assume. They might say it’s bad-faith bargaining, because it takes away things that were there in their last offer,” said Tufts. “I’d be very surprised if they say this is something they can work with.”
The message from Canada Post, says Tufts, is crystal clear.
“They’re really saying ‘there are going to be layoffs, and this is the best we can do to transition workers.”
The new offer clears the path for layoffs by proposing that Canada Post gives CUPW six months’ notice of impending job losses, and voluntary departure incentive of up to 78 weeks pay.
“Layoffs will only be used if other measures, including attrition and departure incentives, prove insufficient to achieve reduction targets,” Canada Post said in a news release. “With thousands of employees set to retire over the next few years, reducing the size of the workforce through attrition will always be the first choice, but it cannot be the only option through this transformation.”
The new offer also proposes giving Canada Post the option to close 494 post offices run by the Crown corporation and staffed by CUPW. Of those, 493 had previously been protected from closure. The 494 includes 359 post offices officially classified as “rural,” even though many are currently in areas that are suburban or even urban.
Members of CUPW voted down what the Crown corporation called its “final” offer in August, in balloting ordered by federal jobs minister Patty Hajdu, under Section 108.1 of the Canada Labour Code.
Canada Post said last week that an Aug. 20 counter-offer from CUPW would have resulted in $700 million in additional costs per year if implemented.
Canada Post was originally expected to present its latest contract offer to the union last Friday, but said it needed more time after it got the green light from the federal government to implement a broad restructuring.
Last Thursday, the federal government gave the Crown corporation the green light eliminate home delivery, increase use of community mailboxes and to eliminate of some rural post offices. Federal procurement minister Joël Lightbound cited “unsustainable” losses in giving permission for the reforms, and gave Canada Post 45 days to come up with an implementation plan.
Within hours of Lightbound’s announcement, postal workers were back on national strike for the second time in a year.
Elements of the restructuring were included in a report from veteran mediator William Kaplan.
Kaplan’s report, delivered as part of an Industrial Inquiry Commission, also called the Crown corporation “effectively insolvent.”
This is a developing story …
