The national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers is asking workers to reject the tentative deal that was reached with Canada Post earlier this year.
Jan Simpson along with four other members of the union’s leadership believe the new deal abandons what they wanted to see in a contract .
Local CUPW 812 President, Nicole Chouinard told Vista Radio the most important vote among the postal workers is set to take place between April 20th and May 30th.
“The votes were placed (from the board) and the majority is recommending a yes to the tentative agreement. At the end of the day, the bigger process involves over 50-thousand members from across the country having their say. That will be the time we know when it plays out and it won’t be sooner than that.”
When asked if there is the possibility of another work stoppage, Chouinard stated a strike vote would only occur if the deal is rejected by the majority of its 50-thousand members.
“There is potential for that to happen. It’s hard to know what everyone’s mindset will be but the information we are fortunate enough to have, access to all of the information, all of the changes from our current collective agreement we are working under right now and what it compares to the new one.”
“We are never going to have a round of bargaining that is going to achieve every single thing we are looking for. Did we achieve enough for people to be to want to work under this, I think so.”
Chouinard referenced one of the things the national union brass wants to see return is the wage scale to be consistent for all employees, doing away with the current tiered format where more experienced mail carriers get more and newer ones receive less.
“In previous rounds of bargaining, Canada Post initiated a tiered pay scale essentially. What that means is new hires are making significantly less than people at the top of the pay scale. There was a time where everyone was making the same as each other. It makes sense that if we are all doing the same job, we should be making the same is each other.”
“The tiered pay scale is what we are working under now and is one of the things they wanted to pull back from and it wasn’t achieved.”
The tentative agreement is for a five-year contract, and includes wage increases of 6.5 per cent and three per cent in the first two years.
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