By JP Fortin
What’s behind the looming labour dispute between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW)?
Workers saw the extension of the last non-negotiated agreement with Canada Post expire in January 2024. The last attempt to negotiate with the Crown corporation in 2018 failed and strikers were forced back to work. The Trudeau government, under pressure from big monopolies like eBay and Amazon and supported by the Conservatives, criminalized the strike by passing the Postal Services Resumption and Maintenance Act in November 2018. This favoured the employer, who didn’t have to sit down at the bargaining table with the union.
The latest “agreement” between Canada Post and the Crown was therefore the result of judicial arbitration. Judge MacPherson ruled on the new working conditions in June 2020, and her amendments were applied to the document that has served as the collective agreement ever since. In June 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, CUPW decided to renew this contract until 2024 with a 66 percent vote in favor.
Why is SSD a key issue?
One of the union’s main demands is the elimination of Separate Sort from Delivery (SSD), a new work method that increases delivery time and, in many cases, pushes working hours into the evening. Over and above the safety issues and high costs involved in this transition, the implementation of this method leads to the isolation of workers and leaves the door open to the complete “flexibilization” of schedules and tasks, leading to massive setbacks in working conditions.
What can we expect for this conflict?
With a strike support vote of 95 percent for both the urban and rural units, it’s clear that CUPW activists are ready for action. However, the question remains whether the shop floor is sufficiently mobilized to face the combined attacks of the government and the big monopolies. In the current situation, with national grievances failing, the only way to stop SSD would be through mass mobilization.
Unlike the political context of 2018, the Trudeau government is currently at a deep low in popularity and is unlikely to risk special legislation. However, the recent conflict at CN and CPKC Rail has shown that the government has several tools at its disposal to criminalize the right to strike, in total disregard of workers’ rights. A similar scenario would involve a lock-out of Canada Post.
Given Canada Post’s latest derisory wage offer – 10 percent over 4 years, while inflation was 8 percent in 2022 alone – and the backlog accumulated since the Harper years, we shouldn’t be surprised by the anger on the shop floor. It remains to be seen how this anger will be channeled, and whether it will be able to match the general feeling of exasperation against rising prices.
In any case, the postal workers’ struggle depends on solidarity and on the broader struggle for the expansion of public services and against Canadian and foreign monopolies. This will decide not only the future of the postal service, but also the conditions of all workers.
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