Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

The employer has tabled a proposal to eliminate your current sick leave and family-related leave entitlements. Canada Post is seeking to replace them with a new, corporate short-term disability program. This would represent a large concession and the loss of substantial benefits that we fought hard for in previous rounds of negotiations.

The employer says its program will benefit employees, but at the bargaining table — when your union asked Canada Post how much they would save through this program — the employer was too embarrassed to give us an answer. Clearly, this plan was designed to benefit Canada Post�s bottom line at your expense.

This document will lay out exactly what leave entitlements the employer proposes to roll back. The main differences between the current plan and the employer�s proposed plan are as follows:

• Currently, you are entitled to 20 annual days of paid sick and/or family-related leave, of which 15 days can be rolled over if unused.
  • The new plan would reduce this to seven �personal days.� These days would not roll over, but would be paid out if unused.
• Currently, if you have banked sick leave, you have 100% income protection when on short or longer term sick leave.
  • The proposed plan would provide only a 70% income replacement for extended sick leave and you would be required to apply for Employment Insurance (EI). However, there are some cases where accumulated sick leave could be used as a supplementary top-up.
  • However, note that there would be no more accumulation of sick leave. Currently, after 13 weeks of extended sick leave, you would be put on long-term disability.
  • The new plan would extend this period to 30 weeks.
  • And, if you have no sick leave banked, you would only receive 70% income replacement.

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MONTREAL � Canada Post employees demonstrated in Montreal on Monday in a show of protest against their employer�s latest contract offer. The workers are members of the Union of Postal Communications Employees (UPCE) � a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC).

�The employer�s last offer is an insult. We have no choice but to take a strike vote and to move our members towards strike action,� says Richard Des Lauriers, UPCE National President. Des Lauriers was speaking at the demonstration in front of Canada Post�s Montreal plant.

The protest comes in response to a �take it or leave it� offer tabled by Canada Post on August 21. Des Lauriers characterizes the employer�s behaviour as �completely unacceptable� and warned that his members will not be bullied into accepting concessions.

�We are determined to get the best possible deal for our members,� says Des Lauriers, reminding the members that they can count on support from the labour movement and from their fellow workers at Canada Post.

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Bargaining Fair Wages

Currently members receive an automatic economic increase on October 31 and an incremental raise on June 3 until the top of the scale is reached.

The employer is proposing:

• A very small economic increase (between 1% and 2%, depending on classification). This means that the employer views the work of an A1 as less valuable than that of an A5 or A T2
• Your June increment will no longer be automatic – rather, it will be based on your performance appraisal

In 2009, the expected wage increase for the average Canadian worker is 3.5% except in Alberta where the expected increase is 4.8%

Canada Post wants to replace a portion of the anticipated increase with an increase to the Individual Performance Incentive (IPI). However, the IPI is not cumulative and — since your base wage rate would increase more slowly — the amount of the IPI would therefore accumulate much more slowly. In other words, this means a lot less money for you in the future.

This also has serious implications for your pension! The IPI is not pensionable. This would mean that the value of your pension would not increase very much. Over time, your base wage rate and your pension would rise very slowly. This proposal puts your retirement earnings in serious jeopardy.

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Your bargaining team returned to Ottawa this week prepared to resume negotiations with Canada Post with the assistance of a conciliator.

Despite the fact that Canada Post had well over a week to consider the union�s response to its all-or-nothing offer, there was absolutely no movement on the part of the Canada Post�s bargaining team.

Canada Post�s original offer — as communicated to you by your bargaining team on September 2, 2008 — still stands.

That offer was unacceptable then and it is unacceptable now.

Your team remains ready to negotiate, but we are not prepared to bargain away your current entitlements — nor is the team prepared to accept the financial offer tabled by Canada Post.

Your team is now looking to you for your help to send a message to Canada Post.

Over the coming six weeks, team members will be attending local meetings and they will be available to answer any questions that you may have.

Details about these meetings will be posted at your workplace in the near future.

source: Canwest News Service, Tuesday, September 02, 2008

OTTAWA – As the federal government launches into a strategic review of Canada Post, a new poll shows 69 per cent of Canadians oppose allowing private companies to deliver letters in Canada.

Email your MP! Demand public consultations on the future of Canada Post.

The Ipsos Reid poll, commissioned by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, showed 46 per cent of respondents strongly oppose and 23 per cent somewhat oppose private company letter delivery.

At the other end of the spectrum, nine per cent strongly support and 18 per cent somewhat support private-sector competition to the Crown corporation.

“The public is overwhelmingly against postal deregulation and supports a strong universal public postal system,” said Denis Lemelin, the union’s national president.

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Ottawa�Canada Post Corporation has taken an unreasonable approach to bargaining during the late stages of negotiations and employees will take a strike vote over the coming weeks to protect their rights.

The negotiations started in the spring of 2008, and the union says the employer is refusing to address the workers� demands.

Richard Des Lauriers, national president of Union of Postal Communications employees (UPCE), a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) noted �we are disappointed with CPC�s stance regarding negotiations. We have always been prepared to reach a fair agreement with Canada Post, one that ensures a strong and vibrant public postal service.�

The main issues at the bargaining table continue to be: protections against unreasonable measurements and surveillance of individual employees, workload-management issues, a fair benefits package, fair wages and bargaining unit protection. Canada Post has previously negotiated similar settlements with other unions.

The PSAC bargaining team tabled a thoughtful and comprehensive offer of settlement last week, but Canada Post remains reluctant to commit to any proposal of substance.

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Dear member,

We are committed to bargaining fairly and getting you the best deal that we can possibly achieve. To that end, the union tabled a comprehensive offer to settle on August 21, 2008. The employer then responded to us on August 27, 2008.

In tabling their response, CPC took an all or nothing approach. In fact they wrote: �no single item or group of items may be considered separately from the rest.� In other words, a package deal, take it or leave it.

Your team was clear – this offer is unacceptable. Despite our best efforts to take a reasonable approach to bargaining, it is further evidence that our proposals were not being taken seriously and, more importantly, that there was no recognition or respect shown for the contributions that you have made over the years.

The team has taken it as far as we could � so now it’s up to you.

Visit the national website for a detailed summary of the most recent offers tabled by your union and by the employer. The table reflects the parties’ positions as of August 29, 2008 and is organized by theme.

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Your bargaining team, buoyed by membership support from coast to coast tabled a thoughtful and comprehensive offer of settlement with Canada Post this week.

The offer of settlement addresses the key priorities identified by you. They include:

• Monetary proposals to ensure a fair general wage increase
• Improvements in the Cost of Living Clause
• Improvements to the bilingual bonus, travel and meal allowances
• Improvements in medical benefit entitlements – Article 37
• Bargaining Unit Protection � Article 7
• Workload management improvements for those who work in Contact Centres � new language on Preparatory and Wrap Up time
• Pay and benefit entitlements for actual time worked � Article 4 for part-time workers and article 26.08 for all employees who work overtime
• Improvements in grievance language in Article 19
• Stronger anti-harassment language in Article 14
• Adequate funding for child care centres
• Family Related Leave Improvements in a variety of clauses in Article 42
• Protections against unreasonable measurement and surveillance of individual employees � new language
• Improvements in Appendix M dealing with the access to and provision of training for members who have received formal surplus notice

Your team is not prepared to negotiate any concessions and is interested in moving forward towards the goal of workplace fairness. Your team cannot achieve these goals without your help – support your bargaining team actively over the coming weeks! Canada Post is expected to respond to the union’s offer of settlement on Monday, August 25.

Your Bargaining team in front of the wall of member support — left to right: Seth Sazant, Andrew Baranowski, Erna Post, Richard des Lauriers, H�l�ne Arbique, Ren� Fredeen and Larissa MacFadden.

Over the summer months, your bargaining team has worked hard to make sure that your bargaining proposals have been fairly presented and fully understood by Canada Post. For its part, Canada Post has been reluctant to commit to any proposal of substance, and in fact, applied for conciliation before your team presented detailed financial proposals.

It is clear that Canada Post is not interested in seriously discussing the issues that matter to members. Without a doubt, Canada Post needs to change its approach if it wants to achieve a fair collective agreement that builds true workplace respect by contract expiry. Our contract will expire at the end of the month and, in addition to bargaining a fair wage increase, much work remains to be done.

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Canada Post applied for conciliation on August 6th. With this action, the employer has short-circuited the bargaining process by applying to a third party before the union had the opportunity to present a complete set of proposals.

What does this mean for the membership?

• Your bargaining team will continue to bargain in good faith
• Your bargaining team will ensure that your issues receive a fair hearing and the respect that they deserve

Note that the bargaining dates that were previously established by both parties will be adhered to. While your bargaining team is very displeased with the employer’s tactics, remember: Together we can make a difference.

PSAC/UPCE at Canada Post | Stronger Together

The impact of increased workloads due to restructuring (Bulletin #4) goes far beyond the workplace; it goes to the heart of how members try to balance increasing workloads with family obligations.

At the same time that members face workplace change, they are also coping with increased family demands brought about by cuts to education and to social and health services. Both younger and older UPCE members feel caught between the competing priorities of work and home. Recent research has shown that these ever increasing demands are pushing up stress levels and prompting the increased use of leave and more unplanned absences.

The result is that more and more employees — regardless of their length of service — need to take time off to care for parents and children. Our current agreement is not consistent with respect to these leave provisions. A minimum of two weeks leave without pay to care for pre-school age children is provided for. The minimums are higher for the care of older children but they are subject to operational requirements. Leave for elder care is similarly subject to operational requirements. Our contract should be consistent and provide us with the time that we need in order to care for our children and our parents. To begin to address this inconsistency, the bargaining team has tabled the following language with Canada Post:

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Our collective agreement with Canada Post guarantees extended benefits to our members, including coverage for prescription drugs, physiotherapy and dental care.

Canada Post would have PSAC members believe that our health and insurance benefits under Article 37 of the collective agreement make the employer uncompetitive compared to other companies that do the same work.

Is this true? Not really.

Canada Post�s current benefit costs are similar to the payroll costs of other large employers. The company will realize significant tax savings once changes to the Alberta provincial health plan come into effect in 2009. PSAC/UPCE�s membership represents approximately 4 per cent of Canada Post�s total payroll. This means that the total benefit plan costs of PSAC/UPCE members are not as critical in affecting the company�s bottom line.

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Our national bargaining team met with Canada Post from July 22 to July 25.

Most of the unions’ proposals with the exception of monetary items have been discussed at least once during this week of bargaining. Some priority items such as leave entitlements, bargaining unit work, hours of work, contact centre proposals and staffing have been discussed several times to date.

Canada Post tabled an initial proposal on dental health and vision care. Because PSAC/UPCE and Canada Post will not be discussing monetary items until the next set of bargaining dates in August, these proposals are not complete and will remain confidential until all of the appropriate information has been received and bargained between the parties.

Canada Post also tabled proposals that would fundamentally alter the current bidding and scheduling practices for contact centre workers. These concessionary proposals were immediately rejected by your bargaining team.

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Since PSAC signed the collective agreement with Canada Post four years ago, there have been a lot of changes in the way that work is organized and who does that work. The drive for �increased flexibility� has led to reorganization, increased use of term and casual employees and duties being moved outside the bargaining unit.

In 2006, Human Resource Management (HRM) and Production and Control Reporting (PCR) were reorganized and new reporting systems were introduced. Canada Post�s expectations increased, workloads increased and yet fewer people were left to do more complicated work. For example, in 2002, 50 jobs were created in Montreal to handle increased workloads and now only 17 people remain in those positions. The workload has not decreased.

Members are now finding that they have to monitor and correct work that is being done outside of the bargaining unit. This work used to be part of their job.

While PSAC recognizes that there may be some situations that call for term or casual staffing, the union is concerned about the increasing use of these strategies instead of simply staffing positions on a permanent basis.

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Our national bargaining team met with Canada Post July 7 to July 10.

PSAC’s proposal for new grievance language in Article 19 was discussed and a� technical working group was formed to report back to the main bargaining table for the round of bargaining on August 20.

The employer presented a revised Appendix M for renewal. Appendix M deals with ongoing change at Canada Post. Your bargaining team will work to ensure that this program is updated appropriately and continues to be adequately funded. This appendix remains under discussion.

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Earlier this year, the Trial Division of the Federal Court of Canada decided to overturn the 2005 Human Rights Tribunal decision that had awarded pay equity to current and former PSAC members in the CR group at Canada Post. The Court also dismissed the PSAC’s appeal to have the Tribunal’s award doubled. The Tribunal had reduced by 50 per cent the amount of money it awarded.

Both the PSAC and the CHRC have filed appeals. These appeals will be heard at the next level, the Federal Court of Appeal. This Court recently issued an order that sets out the procedure and timetable for PSAC and Canada Post to provide their written arguments to the Court.

This all started back in1983 when the PSAC first filed the pay equity complaint against Canada Post with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Because of the complexity and the size of the written record in this now 25-year old case, it will be the spring of 2009 before the written submissions from PSAC and Canada Post are completed.

It is expected that the Federal Court of Appeal will hear oral arguments from the union and Canada Post in either the summer or fall of 2009.

The federal government is in the midst of a “strategic review” of Canada Post. The future of the post office and the people who work there is being decided by a panel of government-appointed “experts”, all behind closed doors, with little input from the public.

While the government has said that it won’t privatize Canada Post, it hasn’t ruled out deregulation. Deregulation of Canada Post would threaten the quality and availability of mail delivery across Canada, lead to massive job losses and could increase postal rates. It could also threaten the privacy and security of the mail.

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Filing a grievance is one of the most effective ways that you can stand up for your rights on the job, making a difference for everyone in the workplace. When PSAC/UPCE sits down at the bargaining table during this round of negotiations, we will be working hard to improve the grievance process at Canada Post, so that complaints can be resolved more quickly and efficiently.

Your collective agreement

Your collective agreement is the contract with Canada Post that union members fought hard for in previous rounds of negotiations. This contract spells out the gains that we made in protecting human rights, salaries, job security, vacation leave entitlements, benefits and the right to freedom from harassment, among many other issues.

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Our union, UPCE/PSAC, has the duty to fairly represent all members. While the current collective agreement contains provisions that protect against discrimination and sexual harassment, our members have told us that unfairness in the workplace still exists at Canada Post. The bargaining team has proposed a number of changes to broaden the definition of discrimination and define different forms of harassment beyond sexual harassment.

Employers are ultimately responsible for acts of work-related harassment. The Supreme Court has said that the goal of human rights law is to identify and eliminate discrimination.

In agreeing to our proposals, Canada Post would be taking a leadership role in working with the union to reverse the negative effects of harassment. This would help to ensure a healthier and fairer work environment for everyone.

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PSAC members take pride in the work that they do for Canada Post, and more often than not, those contributions are not recognized or valued. This is the first in a series of information bulletins that will highlight our workplace issues and what we want to achieve this round of negotiations to build a better workplace.

• View all the PSAC/UPCE demands for the current negotiations at the national website (pdf).

Surveillance

Contact Centre workers work in an electronic production environment that has been called the “factory of the new economy”. From the moment they go to work people are timed, measured and watched. Emails are measured for efficiency and productivity and calls are measured by calls per hour, talk time, not ready time. Supervisors have unfettered access to workers’ calls and emails, and conversations with clients can be listened in on by a supervisor at any time. It is becoming increasingly the norm for Canada Post to change and apply unreasonable standards to individual employees in measuring work performance and in surveilling employees.

Our bargaining team has proposed the following collective agreement language changes to address this problem and to introduce workplace fairness:

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