Despite Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) coming to tentative terms on a new contract for mail carriers, local union president Kelly Lawr said it isn’t guaranteed workers will support the deal.
Recently elected as the union lead of Local 564 covering Haliburton County and the Kawartha Lakes, Lawr said it was welcome news when, on Dec. 22, Canada Post and CUPW announced agreements had been formalized for both the urban and RSMC (rural and suburban mail carrier) bargaining units.
Approximately 53,000 of the Crown corporation’s employees had been working without a renewed contract for two years – with collective agreements for rural carriers expiring Dec. 31, 2023, and for urban workers Jan. 31, 2024.
“It was nice to know something had been offered. It feels like we’ve been in limbo for so long,” Lawr told The Highlander in a Jan. 16 interview. “The feeling has been pretty negative, especially since talks stopped in the fall and [Canada Post] walked away from the table. So, this is a step in the right direction, but there’s still a lot of mixed feelings on the offer itself and he language that’s being used.
“It is being recommended by national that we vote ‘yes’ for this new contract, but it’s hard to have a full opinion right now because we still don’t have the full collective agreement. We’re still waiting to go over a lot of the details,” she added.
In a notice to all CUPW members, the union’s lead negotiators Lana Smidt and Francois Senneville said they had secured enough improvements from Canada Post’s most recent offer, made in October, to recommend approving a deal.
The contract is for five years, backdated to the expiry of the most recent RSMC contract and running until Jan. 31, 2029. It includes a 6.5 per cent increase in year one – which equates to an additional 1.5 per cent with workers receiving a five per cent raise last January under the terms of a bridge contract – and a three per cent hike in year two, with raises in years three, four and five being tied to inflation.
Canada Post says the deal also maintains employees’ defined benefit pensions, enhances health benefits and offers improved income replacement for injury-on-duty leave and ups the number of personal days per year from seven to 13. There will also be more job security for rural carriers, the crown corporation states.
Notably, Lawr said, the contract includes details for Canada Post adjusting its operating model to support weekend parcel delivery and will transition salaried staff to hourly pay. She’s unsure, though, how that will unfold.
Before any deal can be ratified, it must be supported by at least 50 per cent of workers. During voting on a previous offer in October, 43,370 of 53,614 active CUPW members cast a ballot, with 68.5 per cent of urban workers and 69.4 per cent of rural employees turning it down.
Lawr said workers have been asking for a three-to-four per cent pay increase in years three, four and five of the contracts, rather than have it tied to inflation.
“A lot of us just want this to be over, but we have to hold strong on some things,” she said.
The local, comprised of about 100 workers, will be meeting later this month, with Lawr hoping they’ll have more details to share with members. CUPW said it hoped to finalize all existing items by Jan. 16 so that frameworks can be issued to each local.
Smidt and Senneville confirmed there will be no strike or lockout activities during the ratification vote period.
