Canada postal strike (CUPW) rolls into Calgary and Edmonton

At 6:30pm (or 18:30 as it says on the web site), Tuesday, June 7, 2011, CUPW announced that Victoria and Moncton are back to work Tuesday evening and Calgary strike action will start at 9pm local time and Edmonton will join in at 10pm local time. This action will last 24 hours. The web page indicates that these two new centers were chosen to highlight the adverse impact on postal service resulting from inadequate staffing. Both cities have experienced service problems as routes have not been delivered due to staff shortages, and postal workers have been required to perform forced overtime.

The same web page goes on to list some facts and figures supposedly misstated by the media and Canada Post itself. CPC states 85% of the jobs in CUPW’s urban bargaining unit are full-time while CUPW calculates 71%. CPC is offering $8.4 billion over four years while CUPW is asking for $8.6 billion meaning both sides are only apart by 2.6%. Finally CPC claims CUPW’s proposal would add $1.4 billion to the contract but have failed to explain this number which has apparently been widely quoted in the media. Note that this is coming from CUPW itself.

As well as the strike announcement and the above facts and figures, CUPW published a document entitled “Postal strikes and myths – Part 1” attempting to respond to the wide-spread contention that this strike is another death knell for mail. This is quoted in its entirety below.

Canada Post has responded on its own web site: Mail volumes at Canada Post have fallen as much as 50 per cent since the union started rotating strikes on June 3rd. This decline in volume comes at a time when the company is already struggling to address significant business challenges. The Crown Corporation goes on to explain its position in the war of words which exists between the two sides. The number one item seems to be wages and CPC points out the rather dramatic fact of its operation that labour costs take up two-thirds of its revenues.

Canada Post has proposed a new wage and benefits package for employees hired in the future. This includes a starting wage of $19 an hour that rises to $26 an hour over seven years; up to six weeks vacation; and fully indexed defined benefit pension by age 60. The package for new employees is still superior to the wages and benefits offered by competing logistic and delivery companies.

Apparently there were no meetings between the two sides today. The rotating strikes continue. How this turns out is anybody’s guess at the moment.

Stand by for further announcements. It is expected that around 6pm EDT, Wednesday, June 8, 2011, CUPW will be announcing on their web site the next city to be targeted for a 24 hour walk-out.

References

web site: Canadian Union of Postal Workers

web site: Canada Post

Postal strikes and myths – Part 1

CUPW on their web site have published the first in a two-part or multi-part series on their interpretation of the action they are currently taking against their employer.

There’s nothing like a postal dispute to bring out the harbingers of “the death of the letter” and even the post office. Right wing groups tend to come out of the woodwork as well. They pounce on the opportunity to advance their view of a postal world where competition prevails and everything magically improves. As a rule, there’s a lot of rhetoric and talk about productivity, volumes and much more. Much gets said during a postal strike and quite a bit of it is bunk.

POSTAL MYTH #1: No one writes or sends letters.

It is true that lettermail volumes are declining slowly. But the letter is by no means dead and buried. In fact, transaction or lettermail volumes are 10 per cent higher than they were in 1997, the last time CUPW went on strike (Source: Canada Post annual reports).

POSTAL MYTH #2:  Postage rates are too high.

Our 59 cent stamp is one of the biggest bargains in the industrialized world.  People in Japan pay the equivalent of 94 cents Canadian to send a standard domestic letter. In Austria, they pay 88 cents and in Germany they pay 78 cents (Source: Japan Post, Austrian Post and Deutsche Post).   The real price of a stamp has actually decreased since Canada Post was set up as a Crown corporation in October of 1981. At the time, the government of the day established a 30 cent stamp because the post office was losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The price of a stamp has increased 96.7 per cent since this time (January 1982 to March 2011) while the consumer price index has increased by 128.8 per cent over the same period.

POSTAL MYTH #3: Canada Post is a drain on the public purse.

The truth is that the post office and postal workers do not cost the public money. Canada Post has made $1.7 billion in the last 15 years and paid $1.2 billion in dividends and income tax to the federal government. By keeping Canada Post profitable, postal workers actually save the public money (Source: Canada Post annual reports).

POSTAL MYTH #4: Canada Post has low productivity.

Canada Post is very productive. Unlike many companies, Canada Post has significantly increased productivity in the last two years. For example, mail processing productivity levels for transaction mail have increased by 6.7 per cent (Source: Canada Post through Appendix P of our contract). That is, the number of pieces of mail processed per paid hour has gone up. In addition, the number of workers has gone down. The corporation has cut staff to compensate for the decline in mail volumes. Proportionately, the cuts to staff have been greater than the decline in volumes. The corporation is also expecting large productivity gains from its $2 billion modernization program. Canada Post’s high productivity has allowed it to keep postage rates low, make profits and put substantial dividends and income tax into public coffers.

In short, don’t believe everything you hear or read during a postal strike. Check the facts first. You can normally find them on your local bulletin board or CUPW’s website. Watch for ‘Postal myths – Part 2’ in the days to come.

In solidarity,

Denis Lemelin

National President and Chief Negotiator

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