The Stephen Harper government has introduced legislation that could resolve the Canada Post labour dispute by way of arbitration.
Labour Minister Lisa Raitt introduced this week a back-to-work bill that imposes wage increases well below Canada Post’s latest offer, says the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
On average, letter carriers and inside workers make $24 per hour, plus benefits. The Tory bill calls for a 1.75-per-cent increase this year, 1.5 per cent in 2012, and two per cent in 2013 and 2014. Canada Post has offered 1.9 per cent in the next three years and two per cent in 2014.
“We’re trying to protect employees we have with us today,” Canada Post spokesperson John Caines said. “In giving them wage increases over the next four years, they’ll maintain their iron-clad job security, they’ll maintain their benefits in terms of their pensions. We think they’ll be better off tomorrow than they are today.”
The union — which says the “vindictive legislation” has “stripped 48,000 workers of their basic democratic right to free collective bargaining” — is asking for a 3.5-per-cent wage hike in keeping with the rate of inflation.
Nancy Dodsworth, president of CUPW Courtenay Local 718, has accused Canada Post of “misleading the public” and “manufacturing a crisis to bring an end to their self-inflicted lockout.”
The union started rotating strike action June 3 after eight months of failed negotiations. The main issues, according to CUPW, are unsafe work methods, a 22-per-cent wage reduction for new hires and the elimination of a short-term disability plan.
Canada Post says changes are necessary due to declining letter volumes — 17 per cent per household in the past five years — and a $3.2-billion pension shortfall.
Caines said the company needs to be “more fiscally responsible” by starting new employees at $18 per hour.
“They will, I think, catch up in five or six years with the other employees. They will also get job security and a pension and all the other things that go with it, so we think it’s a pretty good offer.”
As it stands, the short-term disability plan provides up to 30 weeks of protection at 70 per cent of a salary. Caines said more than half the Canada Post workforce does not have enough banked sick leave to get them over a short-term disability period. The company therefore proposes a new plan that would cover workers from Day One in the event of a serious illness or injury.
“We want to protect all the employees the same way,” Caines said.
On Thursday, MPs began debating the back-to-work legislation. The Tories hope to pass the bill as soon as possible but the NDP plans to delay it to give the two sides another opportunity to negotiate their own deal.
Postal workers from Campbell River and Courtenay staged a Tuesday protest at the Courtenay office of North Island MP John Duncan, demanding government respect their rights to free collective bargaining.
“John Duncan has said the government has an arms-length approach to Canada Post,” Dodsworth said.
reporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com
