LABOR RELATIONS. The strike of 55,000 Canada Post employees is almost in its third week. On this 19e Today, on the various picket lines of the MRC of Drummond, the morale of the troops is still holding up, although negotiations between the employer and the Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) are still suspended.
Around sixty strikers out of the 107 are protesting in front of the MRC post offices, including those of Drummondville, Saint-Nicéphore, Saint-Cyrille-de-Wendover and Saint-Germain-de-Grantham. The vice-president of the Drummondville section of CUPW, Christopher Plante, ensures that he still has the support of the population.
“We once again hope that this will be a negotiated agreement and we hope that both parties will sit down at the table to be able to negotiate. We understand that the impact of our strike has repercussions on SMEs. We will do our best to resolve this before Christmas so that they can continue to operate,” he says.
Christopher Plante specifies that Canada Post strikers have access to an allowance of $56.20 per day, provided they do four hours of picketing daily. The hourly wage for urban mail carriers and clerks in the Drummondville local section ranges from $22 to $30, which amounts to approximately $165 to $225 for a 7.5 hour day.
The vice-president of the Drummondville section of the CUPW does not hide the fact that some of his colleagues have been struggling since the strike began on November 15. “For some couples in the local section, it’s definitely a real headache,” he emphasizes.
“I have not yet heard if anyone has used food banks. What is certain is that we have advised our members for several weeks, even months, to try to contact their creditors to make arrangements for their payment,” adds Christopher Plante.
Progress, but still
On Monday evening, CUPW National President Jan Simpson said the bargaining team “continued its in-depth review of the ‘detailed framework’ documents that Canada Post [leur] provided on December 1st. She notes that progress has been made, but that there is still some way to go on certain negotiated points.
“We notice that there is movement regarding our defined benefit pension plan. That being said, overall, the framework is far from an agreement that members can ratify. Canada Post is uncompromisingly maintaining many of its draconian “flexibility” proposals. Furthermore, the framework does not offer any solutions to our health and safety problems, and we do not see enough progress in terms of social benefits,” explains Ms. Simpson in a press release.
The CUPW national president reiterates that the union is ready to return to the negotiating table and is waiting to be called back by the mediators. Mediation will only resume when the special mediator has clear proof that both parties have sufficiently modified their respective positions, according to what Canadian Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the US Postal Service has temporarily suspended sending mail to Canada due to the Canada Post workers’ strike, according to The Canadian Press. Customers are asked to refrain from sending items addressed to Canada until further notice.
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