Hello once more
When last asked about the strike at Canada Post, I rather blew off the question. I assumed we would be ordered back to work immediately. So, day one, was a Friday, we would be back to work on the following Monday.
Well, we were not so ordered.
All this week, on the strike line, we all assumed we would go back by this Monday, day 11. And as of early Sunday morning, we are not going back to work yet.
I think, as did we all, including the management of the company that the government would have stepped in by now and put an end to this already. It has not happened.
Reading the mind of the government, clear something we are not very good at, we are getting some clear messages… or so we hope.
This week the Labor minister said, “we”, the government, have no plans to order us back to work.
Interesting.
The Minister of Public Service, the direct boss of Canada Post, on Thursday said a few things of note.
1) Canada post is a service company not for profit! So, all the talk of it losing money is having no impact on the government.
2) They expect that the jobs here should be good, stable jobs. IE not gig part-time crap the company wants to offer for weekend work.
3) That there is a “hands off” relationship between the government and the crown corporation.
In other words, this is your mess, the government is not stepping in to fix things this time. So, go do your job and get this fixed. Now, would be a good time to do it, yesterday even better.
Keep in mind, time waits for no man. The days of our peak period starting Nov 15, have started. Next Friday, 6 days and counting down from here, is Black Friday, the biggest online buying date around. Millions of things to be shipped and billions of dollars at stake.
So all that pressure and we see something intriguing. Well in my mind, very compelling. Something the company let slip.
A hint of panic, perhaps?
Canada post has a spokesperson who is a weasel. He is slimy piece of poo, but he does a good job of sounding genuine. (And if you can fake that, you have it made!) So, there he was on TV this weekend, giving an interview about the progress made in negotiations. He said things are going slow, too slow. The pace will have to pick up to get a deal done.
Really? Who could he be speaking to? Not the workers, we want a deal fast. Hence, why we have been in talks for over a year now. Certainly not the public, CPC has never cared what they think to begin with. The government is not listening, remember that hands off comment? So, who is he talking to? This man has never uttered a single word not already approved and crafted by management. So, I ask again who is he talking to, and what is he signalling? Where is this going? CPC has always been the one with their foot on the brakes. They have slowed this down, I assume in hopes the government would order us back to work and be done with the negotiation table. If they want to go faster, all they need to do is kick it up. For example, the company said they would have a new offer on weekend work ready for Friday morning. Nope! Afternoon? Still nothing. Friday evening? Well, here it is. 12 hours later. So, where is that speed they want to use to pick up the pace. But the fact that they are saying it, says the company mindset is shifting.
Lastly, keep in mind, most of these people do not get their bonus if they do not meet their goals. With us on strike, they will not get them. If you have to sell so many widgets to get your bonus, and you are not allowed to sell any, this might be a problem for you. When your bonus can be as much as 60-100% gain over your base salary, missing it, is really going to hurt. At CPC, this is peak time, so this is where you make or break your quota or this year, not.
So bottom line. If the government is not going to step in, we could be out for a long time. At least another week or two. I don’t see this lasting into December before the government takes action of some sort. But, we are working without a net. Our assumptions have been disproven by the sheer amount of time that we have been out. Who knows, we could still be out in December at this rate. Someone will have to blink. It won’t be the workers, it seems it won’t be the government. That leave the company and the comment by the spokesperson, says they are blinking rather hard. They are still getting paid, while we walk the line. When they stop getting paid things like their bonus. The shoe is now on their foot, and they do not like that nearly as much.
Note from the strike line
Dec 2, 2024
So if you were following the news, you may have seen that Nov 27, last Wednesday, all negotiations were called off. The parties were sent to their room and there was no money to pay for food!
The problem with the Canada Post strike lies with a single factor. How can that be you might ask? Surely there are a plenitude of issues? Yes, there are. However, you have one, make-or-break issue. I will explain. The company has a wage offer of 12% compared to a wage demand by the union of 24%. If you take the middle ground of 18%, you would see that is also the average wage increase for workers in the transportation sector. So, as you can see the two sides are not that far apart.
Yet, over the week, prior to the cancellation of negotiations, all they talked about was weekend work. How hard would that to be, to find common ground. Well, it was nigh impossible. Why?
Canada Post has a new method of delivery. They call it SSD, Separate Sort and Delivery. Basically, one person, sorts the mail and 11 people delivery it. This saves the company about an hour per person. So it is a significant cost decrease nearing 12%. So they want it. The union does not. So they challenged the company in court and lost. So now they need to do something at the bargaining table. The company, needed the savings and have won the case already, says “NO”.
So the two are just talking at each other. The real problem is the union cannot come back and expect ratification without significant changes to the SSD model. Any bargain struck must be ratified by the members, and they will not get ratification without it.
So, the union is also stuck in a no win situation with the workers.
Toronto, the largest local will not accept anything less than that! And where Toronto goes, so too goest the rest of the country.
So the company will not seriously negotiate without the union agreeing to SSD. The union cannot seriously negotiate without significant changes to SSD. So, like two children squabbling, they want big daddy government to step in and show who is their favorite child. Because no matter who the government picks, the government looks the fool.
So. step back to the start of the strike! Where we all thought, we walk out on a Friday, big daddy government orders us all back to work for Monday! We all lose one day of pay, and life goes on, the birds sing and the sun shines.
Ya right.
Train wreck. The government is not in a position to piss off the NDP and the NDP say let them negotiate. So we do. For weeks of getting nowhere.
Back to last Wednesday, the government pulls the plug.
“You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.”
Okay, maybe not those exact words but close enough.
Now, there I was on the strike line when my phone rang from Ottawa. They had just gotten the boot from the talks and there was sheer panic at Union HQ.
“We run out of money next week!” The union strike fund was meant to be a cash plaything not something they had to ever spend. Well now they do. So can they arrange for a loan on union property, they own a condo and a building. Things they buy with my union dues. There was talk of asking other unions for long term loans and even merging with another union with deeper pockets. That would go over so well with both the company and the government to see CUPW join with say the Teamsters.
However, do not think the panic was one-sided. It was not. The company is losing out on 1 million parcels per day. However, much profit you assign, 20-30-40$ each shows how much they lost each day. 20 million per day by 15 days is 300 million. This is the period where the company makes money and to wit, the endless vice presidents make their bonuses. No money, no honey. But, how could I possibly know this to be true? After all, I sit on the strike line, well stand around and mumble to myself in the cold, damp cold by the way, very fucking damp cold… I digress.
So, how do I know the panic is on both side? There are two incidents you may have heard. The first, at the negotiations table, the company rep threatened to only use gig workers on the weekends. Oh, really? And all those people blocking your gates are going to allow it? It was made as a threat and everyone knew it. So the Mediator sent everyone home. The second incident was when the company started to lay people off. Which is, incidentally illegal. But it sounds scary. The company is laying off the temporary workers. But not all of them, just those who have not complete 480 hours, which is the threshold to join the union. Since they are not part of the union yet, they can be laid off. Which means they get unemployment. While the rest of work the line. But it sure does sound scary.
So why the threats? Because, while we workers are on the strike line, not getting paid, the company is not making any money. When your bonus is based on making money and can amount to 50% of your salary, that means all those we left inside, are working at half pay. When they get paid, as our President does, 500K in salary and another 500K in bonus if he meets goals. Without us working, he won’t be making that bonus. A bad Christmas could wreck your bonus for the whole year. So, we want to get paid, and so do they. But, big daddy government has sent us all to bed without supper.
Sunday, we get word that there is a new proposal on the deck. Not for us mind you, it was sent to the mediator to get them to start new talks. So, I read that this morning and was still depressed. That is until I read one line of the new report. That CPC hoped that there proposal was satisfactory to the Minister with an eye to ratification.
OMG! Half the problem is removing all the clutter and getting to the heart of this strike. Showing both sides where the real concern is and what has to be done here. The company has to bend so that the union can get their contract ratified by the members. Once that is accomplished the rest can be solved in a matter of hours.
So far, in this strike I have batted a thousand. Oh wait, read that backward. Zero. I have gotten nothing right. So, your millage may vary here. I think, that there is a hint of a dawn in the talks and the strike will be resolved soon. Or so I may be just wishful thinking.
I cashed my strike pay. Woo hoo. $56.20 per day! I have enough money in the account to pay the rent for three months. December, January and February, so I am safe enough. I have credit, credit cards and savings etc. So I am not worried… well just a little in any case. But the rest on the strike line? So many of them are living pay to pay. Thursday, is the last pay from CPC. 4 days of pay is not a lot. Strike pay is even less. Even if we start back to work today, the next time we get paid will be in a month. It’s going to be a silent Christmas this year for many of those on the line.
The most painful things to happen to a man? The first is they go into the woods and take a piss in winter. Someone forgot to pull up a bear trap. Well, the warm water caused that trap to snap on the man’s private. Now, you think to yourself, that has got to be the most painful thing to happen to a man. A bear trap slamming into your privates. But it is not. See, when the trap slammed shut on the man, he went running for help. In that running away, the worst pain a man could feel happens. When said man running with a bear trapped slammed on his privates hits the end of the line, as the bear trap is always anchored into the ground… ouch!
A lot of people on the line still have not yet hit the end of their line.
Next pay won’t be before January. Strike pay won’t pay for Christmas gifts. A lot of postal families are going to be hurting and the hurting now is going to get a lot worse before this is over.
Hopefully sooner than later.
Date line December 4
The union in much delayed, stunned silence, finally answered Canada Post. At the mediators’ insistence, they narrowed things down to 4 items. The first was pension. We will still be on strike next year if they touch that. Think third rail and everyone knows it. Second, they want a commitment for exploring other avenues of service. The main one; is like to say your grandmother is home alone. The mailman would knock on her door each day and say “hello”. Then the system would send you a text saying she was fine at such a time. If there was no one home, it would send you another text. So you would know to drop bye and make sure she is fine. This is a no-brainer. All CPC has to do is set up a committee and be done with it all. Number three would be salary. They say 12, we say 24, let’s split the difference at 18 where they will end up at soon enough.
So, that is three out of four things. The fourth is the big baddy. The sticking point of all this. Separate Sort and Deliver. (SSD). The do or die. Well, so they thought. Seems dying is now an option. Remember above the Minister instructions about ratification? Well, they need something to bring home. We started out demanding it go the way of the Do-do and begone from our hallowed halls. Well, the water with the wine, and the need to save face, they now want more time to do circulars. So like an extra 15 mins and we are done? Seems so.
Okay then, easy-peasy and we are done right? Well, not quite there yet. Seems the Minister also ordered that no new negotiations will happen until the mediator is all be certain the two sides will come to an agreement. That means no new negotiations until a deal is all but certain.
A side note here, this is like in the 60tys we had Kremlin watchers. They would see how everyone from the Politburo was standing on ceremony days to see who was gaining favor and who was losing it. Who was making book and who was not. This is the same sort of thing. You hear things and have to wait a bit before you understand them. The minister was not going to sit the parties back in a room until they have a deal. Then they will walk out, shake hands and we all can go back to work. When? I am still thinking next week, and I am also hoping that is to be the case cause walking in a line in the cold is not fun. And mostly boring to do. Worse, to only make $56.20 per day. Not fun. Oh goody, it is snowing outside, so tomorrow should be even more fun to walk in a winter wonderland.
Today, to keep up moral, they made hotdogs. It was so cold, I started to eat one end and by the time I reach the end of the dog, it was frozen over.
Dateline Dec 9
Day 25 of being out in the cold
New proposal from the union.
It had wage demands of 19%. Now if you have been following thus far, we were at 24% to the company’s 12%. So a wage drop of 5% is a significant change. As the two sides get closer to a deal, the price has to drop. I have said it before, the two would settle on the industry standard of 18. So as they circle that magic number, they are getting very close.
Also, the radio silence from both sides, order by the mediator to stop negotiating in media, since they are not negotiating in any case, should be a clue. When they are feeding their side to reporters, they are trying to get a message to the other side by getting interest groups on their side. So when they go silent, they are in serious talks. I think as the numbers circle closer together, the two sides are going to strike a bargain this week. I know, I have said that like every week thus far, but while I am off on timing I think I am right on everything else.
Or so I would like to think.
Dateline Dec 11, 2024
The union recent proposal was dismissed by the Post Office as driving the two sides further apart. Yet, contained within was a price point drop of 5% off the wage demand. What is going, and why is Canada Post saying something rather counterintuitive?
First, this week, for the first time, both parties met. This is something the Minister of Labor has ordered not to happen unless there was a high likelihood of success. They talked about the new proposal and included was the wage drop. Now in Negotiations, there are two tables, the first, the dollar table, has only two things, wage increase and pensions. Things that will cost the parties’ money. The other table has everything else. So if table 2 costs them a lot of money like extra days off or more cost for insurance, they naturally will deduct it from what they can offer on table 1. So, when they start to talk issues of table one, they are All But Done. But spokesperson for the company have come out to condemn the proposal and say how horrible it is. It has driven the two sides further apart. Well, where is that coming from?
Canada Post had a simple strategy, go on strike/lockout, get the government to order everyone back to work and binding arbitration and boom, they can let the arbitration deal with itself. See in such matters, the arbiter usually tends to leave the contract language up to the company but favors the workers on money issues. Oh, and it typically takes a few years to get a judgement. Well, that is not how things worked out.
The government, both the Minister of Labor and of Service, who is their real boss, are all over this. They want these file solved. So they are pushing the company to solve the problem. Now, an arms length relationship exists. So, the Minister is not on the phone daily, or even hourly. Nope. It is the deputy Minister calling every 45 minutes to get a status update. Which sounds annoying, it is even worse when they actually are doing it. Hence, pressure. So, when your boss, is not calling, but his deputy is, get the message, we need a solution, NOW. Add in the clear ominous threat. This presents a toddler, kicking and screaming, being dragged to the table to negotiate. It also means they do not want to go, they do not want to do this, they do not want to have any language changes. What they want, that ship has already sailed. What remains is the being catty and smarmy remarks, “We are so disappointed, we are further apart,” WAN, WAN, WAN.
Oh wait, the minister is calling again to see where we are on what page, what line of the counteroffer and what we are trying to reply with and why are we not agreeing and what we are proposing instead.
So, as much as they do not want to go back to the table, and as much as they hate to make such a deal, they really are not in charge. The pressure is on to get this deal done.
We are close, otherwise, the mediator would not bring the parties together and the union would not have lowered the wage demand. One or two more exchanges, and we should be done. I am hoping to return to work on Monday. I, also thought that we should return on Monday 4 weeks ago with binding arbitration, so my batting average is still 100!
All wrong.