CUPW negotiations: New terms and conditions of employment come into effect

The current situation is entirely regrettable and was probably entirely avoidable … but the work to do that should have started 1more than 10 years ago. Sorry to say this but our senior leadership has been asleep at the wheel, at best, and both negligent and incompetent at worst. We have all known about the decline in letter mail. We experienced a boost in parcel business during the pandemic which we failed to keep hold of. The conversion of all inner city addresses to CMBs should have been completed … they are largely Liberal-leaning neigbourhoods and constituencies and the reversal of that plan was an entirely political decision. Many underused RPOs should be closed or franchised out to the businesses that want a postal wicket in their big box store. SSD is a bad idea … it will result in greater injuries overall – RSIs for inside workers doing multiple route sortation, and increased risk of slips, trips, and falls for those on outdoor full time delivery, never mind the prolonged exposure to either extremes of heat and cold. 7-day parcel delivery is all very well if you have the parcels to deliver. My parcel numbers for M-F have dropped by 50% in the past year … and to deliver the same volume over 7 days makes no sense at all. Senior leadership has spent far too much money on new buildings, new vehicles, and surveillance technology and not enough time and energy securing new business. Newer facilities could have been built on land with an elevation to it (which is cheaper) and multi-story warehouses/workspaces are ubiquitous these days … keep the footprint small and build up with a second level accessed by a ramp on an inclined parcel of land … Obviously a lot of things have got to change including the excessive number of supervisors (the first of about ten levels in the CPC management hierarchy) who wander around checking lists and ticking boxes. What’s wrong with having a digital check in board when you show up for work? Among all of this our leadership should willingly forfeit their bonuses and senior union leadership should not be drawing a salary that is significantly different than the average salary of the workers they represent. Union dues taken off my cheque, without any choice about it, are as much or more as the deductions for EI! There are lots of things we have to change or the world around us will visit that change upon us anyway. Bit like climate change. Better get cracking!