Contract talks are scheduled to resume Tuesday between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).

Union members recently voted 94.5% in in favour of giving their negotiators a strike mandate. CUPW will be in a position to strike midnight May 24 if an agreement is not reached.

“We would expect this week to see, hopefully, more movement,” said Gerry Deveau, the union’s national director for the Ontario Region.

There are about 110 CUPW members in Sarnia, he said.

“The employer is proposing major rollbacks.”

The union has said Canada Post wants to pay new employees 30% less, reduce benefits, weaken job security and provide “an inferior pension.”

Deveau said the turnout at the recent strike vote was the highest in the union’s history.

“A 94.5% strike vote sends a clear message to Canada Post,’ CUPW national president Denis Lemelin said in a press release.

For breaking news go to theobserver.ca, or check us out on Facebook and Twitter.

Read More…

OTTAWA – Citing what it claims is intransigence by management, the union representing 54,000 workers at Canada Post announced Friday that it has applied for conciliation, a move that starts the clock ticking towards a possible strike this spring.

“We’ve taken this action because Canada Post has to move from its hardline position on demanding significant concessions from our members, even while it continues to post profits and spend money on technological changes,” said Denis Lemelin, national president and chief negotiator for the union.

A government-appointed conciliator will now attempt to bring the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and Canada Post Corp. to a negotiated settlement.

Read More…

Citing what it claims is intransigence by management, the union representing 54,000 workers at Canada Post announced Friday that it has applied for conciliation, a move that starts the clock ticking towards a possible strike this spring.

“We’ve taken this action because Canada Post has to move from its hardline position on demanding significant concessions from our members, even while it continues to post profits and spend money on technological changes,” said Denis Lemelin, national president and chief negotiator for the union.

A government-appointed conciliator will now attempt to bring the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and Canada Post Corp. to a negotiated settlement.

Read More…

Negotiations are beginning on a new collective bargaining agreement between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).

The current contract expires Jan. 31.

“There’s a good chance we could be in a strike position,” said Lana Smidt, president of CUPW Local 824. “We’ve never seen these kinds of rollbacks.”

Some of the changes to the contract being presented by Canada Post will not be accepted by the union, Smidt said. In particular, a plan to introduce a new, lower pay scale for new employees is at issue.

Read More…

Dozens of letter carriers walked off the job in Winnipeg on Monday in protest over a new mail delivery method they call unsafe.

In implementing its modernized methods of sorting and delivering mail, part of the corporation’s transformation project, Canada Post has been facing resistance from employees in Winnipeg, the first city to operate under the new “two-bundle” system.

When one worker refused to follow the new rules, he was cited for insubordination and immediately suspended. Dozens of other carriers from the mail depot — 76 in total — then walked out in solidarity.

About 15% of the city’s routes were affected, said Jon Hamilton, a spokesman for Canada Post.

Read More…

OTTAWA — The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is holding a “day of action” Wednesday as it gives formal notice to Canada Post to begin contract negotiations on behalf workers at its urban operations.

The contract for these workers expires Jan. 31, 2011. The union is currently negotiating on behalf of its suburban and rural carriers, whose contact expired Dec. 31 last year.

Read More…

The Grim Reaper took a break from her deathly duties yesterday to protest pending changes at Canada Post.

When asked why she decided to join a protest of approximately 30 postal workers outside the Malenfant Boulevard Canada Post mail processing plant, the cloaked figure slowly swung her scythe and uttered: “Job cuts. Death to jobs, death to the local economy.”

When not in costume and presiding over symbolic funeral processions at protests, the Grim Reaper is actually postal employee and union representative Louise Comtois. As her colleagues marched around the entrance into the Canada Post property yesterday, she explained that they’re trying to bring attention to changes being proposed by Canada Post.

“The biggest issue for us is job loss, but what goes along with that is service to the public,” she said. “We’re providing an excellent service right now, we’re beating Canada Post standards for mail delivery and now they want to truck it to Saint John, which to us is ludicrous.”

Canada Post plans to send letter mail to its Saint John facility starting in August, where it will be sorted by a machine. It’s currently being sorted manually in Dieppe.

Once sorted in Saint John, it will then return to Metro Moncton for delivery.

Canada Post says there will be absolutely no delay in people receiving their mail because it’s sorted in Saint John.

“There will be no impact to the level of postal service provided,” says spokeswoman Genevieve Latour.

She adds that no one will lose their job, either. Ten positions will eventually be eliminated, but through retirement or attrition.

Read More…