Postal Strike Likely?

[jon]

Postal workers could strike this week
By Carmen Chai, Postmedia News
May 30, 2011 1:14 PM

OTTAWA — Canadians could be without postal service by the end of this week after the union representing tens of thousands of Canada Post employees issued a strike notice to the Crown corporation Monday in a last-ditch attempt to force an agreement.

After seven months of failed negotiations, the union tabled its final counter-offer and turned down Canada Post's latest offer Monday morning.

"Striking is our only real bargaining lever with Canada Post and we have concluded that we must give notice that we are willing to use our legal right to strike to get a decent contract that meets the needs of our members and preserves public postal service, Canadian Union of Postal Workers national president Denis Lemelin said.

He told reporters that union members were still pushing for a collective agreement but that ultimately Canada Post officials had to drop some of its demands if it didn't want to trigger a strike, the first in 14 years.

"After seven months of negotiations, Canada Post continues to demand major concessions, including unsafe work methods, a 22 per cent wage reduction for new hires and the elimination of a sick leave plan that members have had for over 40 years," Lemelin said.

Union negotiators have asked for a wage increase of 3.3 per cent in the first year, followed by 2.75 per cent in the subsequent years of a four-year contract.

Lemelin said that the current sick leave plan is based on banking sick days but the Crown corporation is fighting for a short term disability plan to replace it, which has caused contention between the two sides.

"They have to let go of the concessions they put on the table. It's important for the postal workers; we deserve to have a good job," Lemelin said, asking Canada Post if it wanted a "society based on cheap labour."

Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton said the union's demands show that its members aren't respecting the corporation's current situation.

"The offer the union has put forward has unfortunately shown how far out of touch they are with the challenges we're facing with Canada Post," Hamilton said.

"In the last 16 years, we've never had to ask taxpayers for a dime, but the demands the union (has put forward) puts us in a position that we just can't accept."

Hamilton said officials offered a 1.9 per cent increase a year, with wages starting at $18 an hour for new hires and increases capping at $26 for new and existing employees. Employees also receive a benefit pension plan and up to seven weeks vacation despite a 17 per cent decline in letter mail volume since 2006.

Hamilton said banking sick days isn't a fair system because new employees who could face illness later on the job would be left with little coverage.

Still, Hamilton said the corporation will continue to try to compromise with union negotiators, noting that a strike would affect about a million small- and medium-sized businesses, 4.5 million seniors and millions more in rural communities and in the North where Canadians rely on the postal service to receive essentials.

"We're going to negotiate as long as there's somebody else on the other side of the table. We think what we've put forward leaves our employees better off than they are today," he said.

The CUPW represents 50,000 members in its urban operations bargaining unit, including full-time, part-time, and temporary workers.

The union is required to give 72 hours notice if it is going on strike; the corporation has to give the same period of notice in the case of a lockout. The union will be in a legal position to strike on Thursday at 11:59 p.m. if a deal has not been struck by then.

In the event of a strike, regular mail and parcel delivery would stop, except for the delivery of welfare and other social assistance cheques.

Canada Post says contingency plans are in place to ensure the safety of any items that remain in the mail stream during a strike.

ref. - http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Postal+w ... story.html

[jon]

My read of this is that I should be giving 80-90% odds of a Postal Strike beginning within the next month, and at least 50/50 that it will begin Friday.

Any thoughts?

[Dan Sys]

Back in the day when I was employed by that fine (cough cough) corporation it seemed that the threat of a strike would drag on for months before anything would actually happen. This time it seems a bit different. The union is a lot more militant and management is a lot more hard line, so it's anybody's guess as to when the plug will be pulled. All I can say is thank god I'm not there anymore to deal with this crap.

In my opinion the "top heavy" management team of Canada Post would be wise to settle this thing as I'm told rumours of privatization are once again making the rounds. These guys and their $200,000+ a year salary for sitting on their fat asses doing absolutely nothing would be the first to go under a privatized Canada Post.

[Buckley]

New workers should START at $18/h and can make as much as $26/h ($54,000+ per year) to walk around and put mail in boxes? I'm probably going to start a fight but whatever, why is it that the jobs where you need the least amount of education have these Unions that end up ensuring these workers make more money than many college grads?! Auto workers (on the assembly line), postal workers, bus drivers... I know people who would kill to make $15 or $16 an hour right now and get 40 hours a week, never mind all the benefits and "sick days" (whatever that nonsense is) and that. Fire them all, privatize and let new postal carriers deliver unemployment cheques to the greedy workers who want to ruin the rest of our days by striking (even though it won't really ruin anything, I'll just have all my things from Amazon shipped UPS and I pay my bills online, so I won't be really sad when some overpaid guy in a uniform doesn't deliver me junk mail anymore).

[Buckley]

Also, SEVEN WEEKS VACATION!? I took two days off last year. Unbelievable. Someone needs to put these people in touch with how the real world works... they "deserve to have a good job"... they have a FANTASTIC job right now.

[sparky]

You were reading my mind Mr. Buckley.

Fire them all. Privitize the whole mess. Go to superboxes on PO Boxes and two or three deliveries a week. There is no need for 5 delivery days a week, none of us could
consume that much pizza or need that many sets of new windows or gutters. Utility bills and bank info can be looked after online for most people. Other than an occasional
letter or greeting card, the yearly post card from Aunt Gertrude and Uncle Chester on a Vegas trip, what's in the mail box these days?

The IQ of your average postie has to be pretty damn low when they can't even read an address. Anytime I'm over on the mainland and see posties walking their routes, they
are either listening to an ipod or yakking on their cell phones.

In addition to the ridiculous wages these folks are paid, how much is spent montly on taxis getting them to and from their routes? What was wrong with riding buses like
they did in the not so old days?

Hopefully this will be the last strike for Canada Post as we knew it.

[another dog]

I will concur with most here. As a past "spoiled rotten kid" in the "U sector" of the brewing game, find it the same in other like jobs.
Yet now, away from that, see it repeated over and over again, yet now I, like a lot of us, struggle, and need the two main members
of the family to just make our ends meet.

What is this all coming to? Our people come into this country, pockets full, and they continue to keep pockets full, a new home, a new car.......
it goes on. Where have we gone wrong? Or is it, where have I gone wrong.

I know this is off thread, I'm just venting, that's all. But being back on track, why does it take over a week (now) to get a letter from On.
land out to the coast. Surely we must have more than 3 flights of mail per week from there. I have been waiting for a letter, sent May 21,
and it still has yet to be in my mail slot.

Bottom-line: Wage-wise and otherwise, we are all "spoiled" one way or the other.

A.D.

[Dan Sys]

why does it take over a week (now) to get a letter from On. land out to the coast

Because Canada Post wants you to shell out the big bucks for services like Express Post or Priority Post for prompt guaranteed delivery. Over the years the srandards that used to constitute First Class Mail have been gradually applied to Express Post (at over 10 times the cost to the consumer).

[jon]

Because the Post Office lost nearly all of the money making business mail to the courier companies by about 1980, it has got me wondering how they survive without government subsidies. Admittedly, the federal government now pays for postage; it didn't in the distant past, e.g. - the 1970s. But that isn't a subsidy; it is the end of the Post Office subsidizing the government.

From what you've said in the past, Dan, I have to assume that flyers are the major money maker today. If so, it seems pretty clear that the fate of the Post Office is closely tied to the speed with which flyers are replaced with Internet-based equivalents. And that, I think, is anyone's guess.

Bottom line: nobody can run a business successfully based on daily delivery of 59 cent envelopes to individual residences.

All that said, back to the original question: based on where we are now, what are the odds of mail delivery on Friday?

[jon]

At midnight tonight, Winnipeg gets a 24 hour strike.
ref. - http://www.thestar.com/business/article ... nipeg?bn=1

[Dan Sys]

As far as I'm concerned CUPW going on strike right now is a suicidal blunder. Something along the lines of Ignatieff bringing down the minority Harper government when Harper was miles ahead in the polls or the B.C. NDP electing the radical Dix as their leader instead of the more moderate Farnworth.

Why are people so god damn stupid when the outcome is so predictable? I just kind of shrug my shoulders & shake my head in disbelief! All my years of fighting for the progressive side of things in this world appears to be heading for a flush down the toilet.

[jon]

All my years of fighting for the progressive side of things in this world appears to be heading for a flush down the toilet.

"Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory" is how one fellow I knew put it. He was referring to the computer company originally known as Univac, that made the first computer for business, before IBM, yet managed to continually shoot themselves in the foot forever after.

For every story you hear about some organization sticking it out through a long period of hardship, and then finally "making it", there are at least as many stories of successful organizations that flushed it all away.

[Buckley]

As this whole postal strike continues to loom, I've produced a rant about it. Standard warnings apply, it's not safe for work, or to be played around children or people who are overly sensitive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ_XxGDh2sM

[pieinthesky]

Well said, Buckley. Even if it's NSFW, I totally agree with you.

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

Hi Everyone, Yes the rotating postal strikes of June 2011 are upon us. I was hoping it would not happen but here it is. Fortunately it is not an all-out postal strike and I can still get my mail at the main postal location in Langley. So far mail is coming in and you can mail stuff out. I was told that it might be a bit slower at times due to the rotating strikes. Fortunately Greater Vancouver has not been hit yet. I'm a bit hesistant to mail anything long distance out but local mail and mail to the USA is supposed to get out okay still. However mailing stuff long distance in Canada may get slowed down and tied up by the rotating strikes. By the way I love getting mail by the postal system still!!!! I know it takes longer than email but just can't get used to Email being real mail and as personal. Yes over the last two years since I started doing email it has been much faster but I still like the old fashioned postal method better!!!!! Even though I have two cell phones I still like landline phones better. I agree with Dan on some of the pitfalls of cell phones that he mentioned quite a few months back. No Dan you are not going backwards by getting rid of your cell phones either!!!! Also as far as I-Phones and all this other fancy cell phone stuff with all those different applications I say forget it!!!! All I want a phone for is phoning not all that other crap!!!!

I like separate devices for each application, a radio for listening, a wi-fi radio for internet radio listening, a turntable or cd player for playing records, headphones for listening etcetc. I don't like Cramming all these different things into one unit! It reminds me of those combination record player, AM/FM portable stereo units that were a real bitch to fix, everything crammed into one tight space and horrible for servicing!!!! Yeah I know technology has improved greatly with chips etc. etc. but don't kid yourself a lot of stuff can still go wrong with current jam packed cell phone technology too!!!! Thats my take on it and the postal strike too. By the Canada Post is upping the rate next year on stamps, what else is new, the upper management has to have a salary increase too you know!!!! ha ha ha! So in a way I can't really blame the workers for being a bit upset! Timing is a bit out though right now! Should have done it in the summer months.

Take care everyone, Oh by the way Dan will be sending you something to your Maple Ridge address. Ann sends her heart-felt condolences to you and we are both very sorry of Linda's passing!!!! I have been very busy with a lot of moving the last week and seeing relatives on the weekend. Sorry I did not make the Radio West Get-together. will try my best to make the next one. Take care, all the best to everyone!!!!