01) HARPER TORIES DO CANADA POST'S DIRTY WORK

By Kimball Cariou

            As widely expected, the Harper government introduced legislation on June 20 to order locked‑out CUPW members back to work on terms highly favourable to the management of Canada Post. As People's Voice went to press, the NDP opposition in Parliament pledged to oppose the legislation, but it was unclear whether this would mean more than rhetorical resistance.

            Ignoring the reality that Canada Post has dragged its feet for months while demanding huge concessions from its workers, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt claimed that the two sides have had "ample time" to reach a settlement. The legislation will appoint an arbitrator to choose between final offers from management or the union, a choice obviously stacked against CUPW.

            CUPW says the back‑to‑work bill penalizes postal workers and rewards Canada Post for locking out employees and stopping mail delivery country‑wide.

            The legislation sets wage increases well below the company's last offer of 1.9% in 2011, 2012 and 2013, and 2.0% in 2014. At the current 3.3% rate of inflation, this which would have cut the income of workers by a total of 5.5% after four years. The Tory bill includes raises of 1.75% in 2011, 1.5% in 2012, 2% in 2013 and 2% in 2014, leaving workers nearly 6% behind after inflation.

            "Imposing wage increases that are lower than Canada Post's last offer punishes postal workers for a disruption that was caused by the corporation's national lockout," said CUPW National President Denis Lemelin. "The bill would take $875.50 out of the pockets of an average full‑time postal worker during the four years of the agreement. All told, it represents a theft of $35 million from postal workers and their families."

            Lemelin said this heavy‑handed intervention will damage labour relations for years to come. The last time the federal government imposed back to work legislation in 1997, it included a provision that ensured the mediator arbitrator considered the importance of good labour‑management relations. The current legislation contains no such provision.

            "The arbitrator who is assigned to do the final offer selection will not have to live with the results," said Lemelin. "An imposed settlement will not help the post office in the long term."

            The Canadian Foundation for Labour Rights (CFLR) has also expressed alarm at the government's interference with the free collective bargaining rights of Canada Post employees, and Air Canada workers.

            "It looks like the Harper government is treating the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Fraser, which appears to narrow the Charter's protection of collective bargaining rights, as a green light for back‑to‑work legislation," said Judy Fudge, law professor at the University of Victoria and CFLR Board Member. "Legislating workers back to work instead of letting the process of collective bargaining unfold simply creates bad labour relations and does not resolve issues that can only be solved through negotiation."

            The recent Fraser decision denied agricultural workers the same collective bargaining rights afforded other workers in Ontario. It did however affirm that government interference with existing collective bargaining rights may be a violation of the freedom of association guarantee in the Charter.

            "Armed with a majority, it looks like the Harper government is willing to use its political power to interfere with the collective bargaining process and order workers back‑to‑work," said Fudge. "Short‑term coercive fixes do not create the conditions for developing long‑term solutions to the challenges facing Canadian workers and employers."

            "Back‑to work legislation is a blunt tool and the speed with which the government is resorting to this tool is unprecedented," according to Veena Verma, labour lawyer and CFLR Board Member. "The Harper government's response to both the Air Canada strike after a mere 16 hours - and in the Canada Post case - sends a message that free collective bargaining will not be respected and government will interfere to tip the scales on the employer's side."

            One immediate response to the bill was a series of occupations by postal workers and their community allies, who took over several Conservative MP's offices on June 20. They demanded withdrawal of the legislation, an end to the lockout, and a return to collective bargaining at Canada Post.

            Speaking to The Tyee website, Aaron Spires, a union member involved in the occupation of North Vancouver Tory MP Andrew Saxton`s office, a critical issue is the Canada Post plan to establish two-tier wages, with newly hired workers earning about four dollars an hour less than current employees.

            "This is a classic attempt to bust the union and divide workers," he said. Another concern he cited was a new "two bundle" system of mail handling. In a pilot project test in Winnipeg, this system has already seen injury reports go up dramatically.

            Similar occupations occurred at the Edmonton constituency office of Rona Ambrose and the Winnipeg office of Shelly Glover.

            "We are going to stay in this office until the government withdraws the lock out and the back to work legislation," said Spires. "We hope the public will come by to support us. We deliver an important public service, and all we want is to settle our issues through collective bargaining, which the Supreme Court has recognized as a Charter right."

            Although most corporate media coverage of the dispute was blatantly pro‑management, some fair reporting did break through in certain areas. A recent article in the Welland Tribune reported the views of CUPW Local 628 president Gerry Tulio, who said he was "overwhelmed" by community support for the locked out workers, including the 200 members of his local in Dunnville, Port Colborne and Welland. That support has included a statement from two local NDP representatives, MP Malcolm Allen and MPP Peter Kormos, who called on Raitt and Canada Post to end the lockout and resume negotiations. The release stressed that Canada Post is not subsidized by taxpayers, and made almost $2 billion in profit in the past 15 years.

            Union members in many areas were angry that management has even sabotaged mail delivery, which CUPW points out is actually breaking the law.

            "Some of us had our mail ready for the street but Canada Post would not let us get the mail out of the building," said Ruth Breen, spokesperson for Fredericton and Oromocto's CUPW Strike Committee. "We quickly re‑strategized. We had amazing shop floor organizing! Just as we came in en masse, we left en masse with empty mail bags. We set up an info picket at the Waggoners' Lane distribution centre to inform the public that the mail was not leaving the building. Another group went to Fredericton's downtown with flyers to talk to customers and let them know there is mail at the post office and we want to deliver it but Canada Post won't let us. Public support has been fantastic."

            Postal workers entered a legal strike position on May 24th, when CUPW members held a 94.5% vote in favour of strike action. The massive vote was a rejection of Canada Post's proposals to pay new workers 30 per cent less and give them reduced benefits, an inferior pension and weaker job security. Postal workers also voted against an increase in the amount of temporary employees and a reduction in the number of full‑time employees.

            Also rejected by postal workers were cuts to their extended health care plan, replacement of their sick leave plan with an inferior short‑term disability plan and the unsafe "double bundle" delivery procedure. Canada Post has one of the highest injury rates in Canada with over 9,000 CUPW members reporting injuries last year.

Communist leader condemns legislation

            Responding to the back-to-work legislation, Communist Party leader Miguel Figueroa said "This confirms what we said leading into the dispute: instead of engaging in serious bargaining, Canada Post has been counting on the Harper government to help impose major contract rollbacks. Despite turning a profit every year, the company has been demanding a huge pay cut for new hires, attacks on the sick leave program, and many other concessionary proposals.

            "This attack is part of a broader strategy by the Harper government to attack the overall wages, pensions and working conditions of both public and private sector employees across Canada. This corporate/government drive to boost profits by slashing the wages and pensions of working people will be the mantra of the Harper Tories for the next four years. It will take a massive fightback campaign led by the labour movement and its social justice partners to block this agenda. We urge the Canadian Labour Congress, the CSN and all levels of the labour movement to take emergency steps to begin building such mobilizations immediately."

(The above article is from the July 1-31, 2011, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)