Canada Post set for labour disruption
Pensions for new hires at the post office appear to be the main sticking point as talks between Canada Post and its 50,000 unionized workers go down to the wire, with the post office warning that mail movement could stop on July 2.
Canada Post, which turned a $44-million profit in the first quarter of 2016, is insisting that new employees get a less generous pension package than the one offered to existing letter carriers and postal plant workers. This infuriates the postal union.
“They are asking us to sell out our future co-workers and agree to major cuts,” Mike Palecek, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, said from Ottawa.
Canada Post and its workers have been negotiating for seven months, including three months of talks at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Ottawa.
The post office, a crown corporation, has made up for declines in letter mail, and now delivers two out of every three purchases that Canadians make online. Canada Post grew its parcel revenue by 12.5 per cent in the first three months of 2016.
“They are enjoying healthy profits, so we don’t see any justification for the cuts that they are putting forward,” Palecek said.
In last year’s federal election the Liberals promised to halt Canada Post’s cuts to home delivery of mail. After its victory the Trudeau government requested that Deepak Chopra, chief executive of Canada Post, resign. Outgoing prime minister Stephen Harper had extended Chopra’s contract by another five years, effective Feb. 1, 2016, just before the election call. Chopra has refused to step down.
“There was an election where the public rejected austerity and cuts at the post office,” Palecek said. “But we still have Harper appointees running the post office.”
Millions of Canadians rely on Canada Post to receive and pay bills.
The two sides in the postal dispute appear far apart.
“We face a $6.2-billion pension solvency deficit,” Jon Hamilton, a spokesman for Canada Post, said.
“The government gave us relief from making pension solvency payments, which will expire in 2017. In 2017 we could have to pay $1 billion a year in pension contributions.”