Thursday December 6 2018

What is Canada Post doing?

While your Negotiating Committee is getting ready for the mediation phase outlined in the Act, Canada Post is packing up and leaving the hotel without even letting the Union know. What a show of class and respect!

It appears that Canada Post has no intention of fully taking part in the mediation set out in the back-to-work legislation.

The Union believes in free collective bargaining with mediation

From the outset of these negotiations, the Union has insisted on getting assistance from the Federal Mediation Services.

We thought that having someone from the Federal Mediation Services throughout the process would help the parties do things differently and achieve good results for the well-being of our members. It looks like Canada Post had once again no intention of negotiating. It simply waited patiently for the government to step in and deprive us of our constitutional right to free collective bargaining, based on questionable reports from Canada Post.

The newly-appointed interim President of Canada Post, Jessica McDonald, talked a big game around “cooperation” and “a new vision”, but it was just empty rhetoric. She chose instead to manufacture a crisis to convince the government to stifle us once again.

The 2011 lockout and unconstitutional back-to-work legislation – which forced us to make sacrifices we would never have made otherwise –, as well as the two 2016 lockout notices and now the 2018 special legislation, clearly show that the new Canada Post leadership is no different than previous ones. If Canada Post thinks its actions will meet with no opposition, it is seriously mistaken.

We have legitimate demands and we will do whatever is necessary to achieve fair working conditions that ensure our safety and provide decent jobs.

The struggle continues, now more than ever…