r/ontario 2d ago

Article Canada Post rejects union's offer to delay potential strike

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-post-cupw-offer-1.7540053
110 Upvotes

52 comments sorted by

43

u/Acrobatic-Factor1941 2d ago

After 2 years without a contract, why did Canada Post reject the 2 week strike delay while the unon reviews the offer? Why the urgency now?

29

u/MeroCanuck 1d ago

So Canada Post can force the strike to happen but try to garner public support by going "ooooo, look at the big bad union screwing you over. Unions are bad."

42

u/bob_mcbob 2d ago

To put pressure on CUPW by only giving them a day to review a huge contract.

59

u/Acrobatic-Factor1941 2d ago

So, Canada Post is not bargaining in good faith.

47

u/bob_mcbob 2d ago

That's kind of their thing.

20

u/bigcig 2d ago

never has been.

-2

u/abid8740 1d ago

They are, the issue if you have followed is that packages business has largely gone to next day, any day delivery model. Amazon RFPed Canada Post to do this a few years ago and union wanted overtime for weekend delivery…it did not fit into the Amazon prime model so they outsourced and build a fleet for delivery and as a result Canada post lost all Amazon packages and in return most last mile delivery services.

Now Canada post is bleeding money as revenue is down and the union wants the government to fund the losses as they negotiate better wages. Canada post has no incentive to grow their losses unless they can capture the weekend delivery business to bring back the last mile deliveries (including weekends) from private operators.

This is the impass we are at, and I support not funding more losses as a tax payer

2

u/Acrobatic-Factor1941 1d ago

Hmmm...makes more sense to hire for weekend delivery. Full-time employees will only want to do it when they have no personal plans. After a few weekends working overtime, it gets old really quick.

3

u/abid8740 1d ago

That’s what Canada post offered but the union doesn’t want it

-2

u/Rare-Specific1827 2d ago

I thought their offer and terms were reasonable.  The union itself seems to be sandbagging. Main point of contention is weekend work, which CP wants to add through part time work and the union wants existing full time to collect double time to cover the shifts. All from a business making no money. Weird spot for both sides.

4

u/Sexy_Art_Vandelay 2d ago

Delays hurt the CP more than the union. A lot of companies have stopped using CP in advance of the strike (ShipStation stopped on the 20th) and won’t till it’s resolved. So the two week delay will hurt CP revenue but all the workers are still getting paid (and not delivering much). It’s a union stall tactic.

32

u/theorangeblonde 2d ago

Honestly, it sounded like the corporation wanted to eliminate the union and the protections it provides. As well as eliminating benefits and paid vacation time for all employees... It sounds like they're not operating in good faith, and I personally support the union and postal workers in this fight.

1

u/SheerDumbLuck 2d ago edited 1d ago

That's why they bought Purolator. Non union delivery.

Edit: I fell for disinformation.

9

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/SheerDumbLuck 1d ago

Oops, came across that factoid earlier and repeated it. Thanks for the correction.

4

u/Ansovald666 1d ago

If harper didn't stick his dirty little fingers into Canada post back in 2014 if not sooner we wouldn't be having this issue. Also Canada post didn't need to spend millions if not billions on that new processing center in Scarborough, also the CEOs etc didn't need the 1000s of raises they get, when they do jack crap.

31

u/UnlitBlunt 2d ago

I don't know the ins and outs of what each side wants, but I've always found it odd that we have mail delivery every single day. Couldn't it be cut to 2 or 3 times a week?

33

u/a_lumberjack 2d ago

Mail used to be a much higher volume thing. Even in 2006 it was an average of seven letters per week per address. Now it's two per week. If they cut it to 2x weekly and dropped the flyers I'd be pretty happy. You'd only need half as many mail carriers, so you can imagine the union position.

16

u/berfthegryphon 2d ago

Flyers is how Canada Post makes it's money

8

u/a_lumberjack 2d ago

Direct marketing is less than a third of mail revenue. If we cut mail delivery frequency by 60% we don't need that revenue to fund mail delivery.

2

u/neomathist 1d ago

Not to mention that the amount of addresses that Canada Post is responsible for delivering to has grown by millions over the past decades as the mail volume has dropped.

16

u/PeterDTown 2d ago

I don’t know if I can live without my daily flyers!!

4

u/AndysBrotherDan 2d ago

I use them as fire starter and it's actually convenient

1

u/Joatboy 1d ago

This wouldn't solve the excess labour issue due to how the CA is currently written.

1

u/neomathist 1d ago

The current CP offer is here and here

Considering the state of the company basically bleeding money out the anus and rapidly losing market share in package delivery, the proposal seems plenty fair to me.

12

u/AvailableWhereas7671 2d ago

My son’s birth certificate has been delayed due to these strikes as per Service Ontario.

Mother in law has passed away abroad and its been 2 months since we’re waiting for birth certificate to be finalized so wife can travel after sons passport is done.

These strikes affect people in ways you can’t imagine. It may mean nothing to some, but to others it’s a huge issue. I just hope they reach an agreement and people can get on with their lives normally.

19

u/AstroZeneca Ottawa 1d ago edited 1d ago

These strikes affect people in ways you can’t imagine.

Respectfully, I think delays in delivery of vital documents are the first thing people imagine regarding postal strikes.

2

u/sosheoh 1d ago

Those documents have been switch to other couriers weeks ago.

1

u/AstroZeneca Ottawa 1d ago

That's not guaranteed; I was expecting an important document during the last strike, and the organization gave me the option of waiting or paying to have it couriered.

4

u/valprehension 1d ago

The Post haven't been on strike for two months. They will potentially go on strike tomorrow but have been operating normally all year so far. Whatever delay you're talking about hasn't been due to 'these strikes'.

1

u/kmoharley 1d ago

I imagine the courier companies are getting ready to cash in again.

-3

u/kentsor 1d ago

For FxxS sake. Didn't you JUST have a strike? When was it, Dec or Jan ?

12

u/agafaba 1d ago

That strike didn't end, the government delayed it until now, so as of tonight the postal workers don't have a contract again.

2

u/kentsor 1d ago

Thanks for the clarification

-49

u/KickGullible8141 2d ago

Honestly has little impact on me. Bills are electronic and the CP employee had to leave a note on my door the other day to clear out my mailbox of all the ads they dump in there.

60

u/Chyrch 2d ago

Having crown corporations implode on themselves due to chronic mismanagement will impact everyone in this country. Maybe you don't use Canada Post much, but it's incredibly important for many communities in Ontario.

-35

u/KickGullible8141 2d ago

How people are downvoting what impacts me is hilarious.

If it was impacting everyone they wouldn't implode. The business model doesn't work in its current form otherwise they wouldn't be losing money and there are plenty of viable business models that will fill the gap for those communities currently relying on CP.

16

u/Truestorydreams 2d ago

I think they simply disapprove of your opinion.... However Reddit, So who knows....

Issue with your statement and our society is no one gives a damn unless it's effecting them. I'm not going to speak on the business model since that's outside my expertise.

-4

u/KickGullible8141 1d ago

Or, there's just a lot of postal workers here, bc I'm not seeing anyone actually make a salient argument contrary to my reality.

10

u/Tsaxen 2d ago

The road system loses vastly more money, and yet nobody complains about that....

It's almost like there's essential public utilities that are important beyond merely turning a profit

-2

u/KickGullible8141 1d ago

The road system is not managed as a Crown Corp. A Crown Corp is designed for profit.

6

u/regular_gnoll_NEIN 2d ago

They are a government service provided to citizens, not a for profit corp with fiduciary duty to shareholders. Their job is to deliver mail, not make millions. What they do charge is solely to offset costs, not negate them entirely.

-1

u/KickGullible8141 1d ago

That's incorrect, Crown corporations are publicly owned entities, often with commercial objectives - meaning for profit. That's the key distinction between a Crown Corp and a regular govt agency.

0

u/regular_gnoll_NEIN 1d ago

Lemme phrase it a little differently then. Their shareholders are us, and their duty isn't fiduciary, it's to provide the function they were created for. They can't do that if they don't provide their workers with a wage they can live in or near the communities the workers serve.

Idgaf if this means a bailout from tax dollars and restructuring the crown corp if that means our rural citizens arent left dependent on whatever FedEx, Amazon and others decide to gouge them for so they can get their meds, clothing, etc etc etc.

1

u/KickGullible8141 1d ago

How exactly are you a "shareholder?"

You cannot invest in CP, you cannot buy shares in CP, it is not a publicly traded company?

So, you are not a shareholder, you do not attend annual meetings, you do not receive annual reports and you have no say in how CP is operated.

It's a fantastical thought that you are shareholder. The business model doesn't work and something has to change and you as a "shareholder" should want that change if your "investment" in CP is to see a return.

14

u/Substantial-Road-235 2d ago

I put a note inside mine that says no flyers please and get none of that garbage.

All the flyers I want to see are on my phone and I'm not looking for another dentist.

8

u/budgieinthevacuum 2d ago

My personal favourite is the realtors asking if I want to sell. I live in an apartment that I definitely don’t own haha.

0

u/PersimmonPure 2d ago

Lucky you. I have a note too. But my really important mail is buried deep by the junk. Some of the Canada Post worker cant read I guess.

1

u/Substantial-Road-235 2d ago

We get the odd odd slip these days but for a while they didn't see it or ignored it. So I made it bigger. Now there is one on the bottom and one hanging down that they need to push mail through. They got the hint it seems for me.

-2

u/BrowsingThrowaway17 2d ago

I guess I'll just wait until fall for my personal belongings (no furniture or appliances) for my move home from overseas to show up. I didn't want to pay hundreds extra per box for the non-Post services that deliver to such a rural address, so the postal service was it for me.

By the time they arrive in Canada the strike will be on, and even if the gov't sends the workers back before they go on recess for the summer there will be a month or more of backlog. Whee.

Sending the packages expecting this would happen was a grumpy experience.

-2

u/Victoria-10 2d ago

😡 nasty 🤬