C1: Job Security:

The Demand: Extend full job security to all regular employees.

The Result: Urban CA maintains status quo. Current employees are covered but new employees will have to wait up to 5 years for job security. RSMCs have not gained and won’t be protected until the new work measurement system is implemented.

C2: Wages:

The Demand: A significant wage increase with full retroactivity to compensate for the rising cost of living. Lower the number of increments in the wage table and raise the starting wage for new employees.

The Result: Year One: 6.5%. Year 2: 3%. Year 3: 2% (based on CPI). Years 4-5: Raises based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI)—meaning if the CPI is 1%, we’ll get a 1% raise. Under this TA, the Urban starting wage and number of increments in the wage table remain the same, while RSMCs go backward, starting at a lower percentage (80%) and adding 2 additional increments to the wage table (now taking 7 years to get to the top rate).

C3: Cost of Living Allowance (COLA):

The Demand: Improve the COLA and fold it into the basic wage rate. Ensure temporary employees receive the COLA.

The Result: COLA formula remains the same and isn’t folded into the basic wage. The COLA provisions will be suspended in years 3-5 of the CA because it will be replaced by raises tied to the CPI. Temporary employees still do not receive the COLA, though they will be covered by these CPI raises.

C4: Premiums:

The Demand: Raise the shift premiums for evening, night, and weekend shifts. Negotiate improvements to premiums. Improve longevity pay. Obtain a new premium for Mail Service Courier (MSC) Heavy Vehicle shunt drivers. Create an MSC Heavy Vehicle Relief function with entitlement to relief premiums.

The Result: No progress. Status quo. Premiums become a smaller percentage of wages with each raise, providing a smaller and smaller disincentive for the employer to move to night work.

C5: Benefit plans:

The Demand: Improve benefit plans including the dental plan, extended health care plan, vision and hearing plan, and life insurance for both active employees and retirees. That the Union negotiate a resolution to the ongoing issue with Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ) for the members residing in the Province of Quebec.

The Result: Some limited improvements to benefits, with massage coverage going from $400 to $500, psychotherapy from $2000 to $3000, and $15,000 lifetime allotment for gender affirming care. However, rollbacks include the addition of a “cap” of a $9 dispensing fee, meaning up to a $9 fee for each medication dispensed, and a 6 month delay before new permanent employees can access medical benefits. The $9 dispensing fee will be especially burdensome in rural and isolated areas with fewer pharmacy choices and less competition.

C6: Recovery of Overpayment:

The Demand: Improve the protections in cases of recovery of overpayment, including lower amounts paid back per pay period and negotiate a period after which CPC would not be allowed to recover overpayments.

The Result: No progress on protecting Urban members from claw backs. No recovery of Personal Contact Items overpayments for RSMCs, but no additional protection from other claw backs for RSMCs.

C7: Pay stubs:

The Demand: Improve the pay stubs to clarify the list of items to be detailed. Ensure RSMCs receive itemized pay stubs as detailed as those received by Urban members.

The Result: Obtained, Employee Self Serve and pay stubs will be updated to include more information. There is little information about how this will look and if/when the employer will implement the changes.

C8: Filling positions:

The Demand: Strengthen the provisions for staffing to maximize full-time regular positions. Require CPC to fill vacancies, staff long-term absences and assume the responsibility to cover all absences. Ensure CPC prioritizes Relief Employees when filling long-term vacancies. Improve Appendix “P” to account for staffing issues at a local level. Improve Articles 39.04 and 39.05.

The Result: No progress. RSMCs in offices with less than 2 routes are still responsible for finding their own replacements. Status quo for Groups 1, 3 and 4, and Group 2 will have a higher percentage of part time.

C9: Overtime:

The Demand: Adopt all necessary measures to reduce overburdening of RSMCs and Urban letter carriers including overburdening created by the delivery of Neighbourhood Mail. Raise the Overtime Meal Allowance and index it to account for inflation. Strengthen Article 15.03 of the Urban Agreement to ensure CPC provides adequate notice of overtime. Ensure employees have more flexibility in the use of compensatory time and raise the amount of compensatory time that can be carried over.

The Result: Limited progress. Members are now allowed to carry over two weeks of comp time and can have a pay out with 30 days notice. The employer can now take 15.08, overtime on your own route, and assign it to relief carriers. New part time positions will likely mean less voluntary 17.04 overtime for Letter Carriers.

C10: Scheduling and Rest Periods:

The Demand: Ensure all part-time employees work a minimum of 20 hours per workweek. Define a normal workday as 8 hours. Include Group 2 employees under Article 14.01 (Urban). Improve Rotation of Duties provisions under Article 14 (Urban). Ensure Group 1 employees receive consecutive days of rest and strengthen the existing rest day protections for Groups 3 and 4 employees. Improve part-time and temporary workers’ rights to paid rest and meal periods. Obtain a 5-minute wash-up period at the end of the shift.

The Result: No progress. Did not incorporate the Canada Labour Code standard into breaks for Part Timers and Temporaries.

C11: Neighbourhood Mail:

The Demand: Obtain proper time for the preparation and delivery of Neighbourhood Mail for both RSMCs and Urban Letter Carriers. Obtain an increase in the rate of pay for Neighbourhood Mail. Ensure RSMCs obtain a premium for oversize Neighbourhood Mail.

The Result: No progress on increasing compensation or obtaining time values time. Preparation space for LCs was negotiated for SSD depots, though there is very little detail on how this happens.

C12: Improvements for Health and Safety:

The Demand: Improvements to Night Recovery Leave for all employees. Obtain recognition of the rights of Social Stewards in both collective agreements. Lower the maximum weight employees required to lift or carry alone. Ensure CPC provides snow tires for corporate vehicles. Install Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in workplaces. Pregnant and breastfeeding employees shall be entitled to precautionary cessation of work.

The Result: No progress.

C13: Extreme Weather and Climate:

The Demand: Negotiate and develop standards for working in extreme temperatures and weather conditions. Ensure CPC provides air conditioning in corporate vehicles.

The Result: No progress.

C14: Route Measurement Systems:

The Demand: RSMC routes shall be structured based on the provisions of the Letter Carrier Route Measurement System (LCRMS) with appropriate modifications. Amend the percentage of coverage formula and its application to account for all products. LCRMS to include time values for all work tasks.

The Result: RSMC routes still not structured by the LCRMS. No new time values for Urban group 2 members. Changes to Appendix KK and Appendix QQ. QQ becomes permanent and routes can be adjusted based on volumes once the percentage of coverage formula is agreed or arbitrated under KK.

C15: Service Expansion and Innovation:

The Demand: Expand and improve retail and delivery services to the public by offering postal banking, check in services, prescription medication delivery, internet access, and electric vehicle charging stations, among others. Restore and expand door-to-door delivery. Negotiate a moratorium on post office closures.

The Result: No progress. Substantial rollbacks. CPC intends to end door-to-door delivery and close corporate offices. The closure of more corporate retail offices makes these other expansions less likely.

C16: Green Canada Post Emissions with New Services:

The Demand: Require CPC to take measures to reduce its environmental footprint, initiate new environmental services and negotiate joint environmental sustainability committees. Ensure employees do not bear the costs of measures to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

The Result: No progress.

C17: Job Retention:

The Demand: Contract in all work that CUPW members can perform with no contracting out of work.

The Result: No Progress. The closing of corporate post offices amounts to contracting out that work to RPOs, and the tentative agreement would allow CPC to close up to 100 CUPW offices.

C18: Technological Change and Automation:

The Demand: Improve Article 29 (Urban) and Article 35 (RSMC) to better protect against technological change. Recognize the deletion of positions as an adverse effect on employees and the Union. Ensure no job loss due to automation, robotization, or the introduction of artificial intelligence.

The Result: No progress. Status quo.

C19: Measurement and Surveillance:

The Demand: Improve Article 41 (Urban) and Article 30 (RSMC) to include protections against any type of electronic monitoring, including telematics, artificial intelligence, front-facing vehicle cameras, and hand-tracking technologies. Prohibit CPC from collecting employees’ biometric data. Prohibit the use of private security cameras as a way to gather evidence in support of disciplinary measures.

The Result: No progress.

C20: Article 20 (Urban) and Article 36 (RSMC):

The Demand: Improve Article 20 (Urban) and Article 36 (RSMC), including the addition of paid sick leave with no reduction of personal days.

The Result: No progress on sick days. Substantial changes to Articles 20 and 36, including the shift from Canada Life insurance to Employment Insurance Sick Leave for the first 4 weeks of Short Term Disability. That means no involvement of Canada Life for at least 4 weeks. Payment would now be at 80%, not 7%. Part timers would now be paid for their worked hours instead of their scheduled hours. After the four weeks it becomes a traditional short-term disability claim and Canada Life will be involved.

C21: Labour Code Equity:

The Demand: Improve Special Leave provisions, including Bereavement Leave. Obtain paid Special Leave for survivors of domestic violence in line with, or better than, the Canada Labour Code. Improve the Protection Against Harassment provisions.

The Result: Leave for Traditional Indigenous Practices and Victims of Family Violence Leave will now be included in the CA. These TAs fail to incorporate Bereavement Leave or improve Protection Against Harassment Provisions. Personal days still don’t match the code.

C22: Seniority:

The Demand: Employees accepting regular or interim managerial positions to immediately lose their seniority.

The Result: No progress. Status quo.

C23: Access to Information:

The Demand: Include in the collective agreements the obligation of CPC to provide the union with all information necessary for the enforcement of the collective agreement, such as information on issues related to staffing, Maximo, mail volumes, payments and finances, work measurement systems, and health and safety.

The Result: Negotiated some access to information for the new Parcel Delivery Part Time positions. Otherwise, status quo.

C24: Child Care Fund:

The Demand: Increase the Child Care Fund.

The Result: No progress. Status quo.

C25: Uniforms:

The Demand: Improve uniform entitlements and the quality of uniforms. Improve the boot and glove allowance.

The Result: Maternity allowance raised to $250. RSMC route holders with routes under 12 hours per week and OCREs who have completed their probation will be entitled to uniform entitlements.

C26: Vacation Leaves:

The Demand: Improve Vacation Leave and include Quarantine Leave under Vacation Leave displacement for both units.

The Result: No improvements to Vacation Leave. Negotiated quarantine displacement, confirmation that vacation is “portable” for Group 1 and can be brought with members after transfers.

C27: Maintain Contract Provisions:

The Demand: Ensure that all dates in the collective agreement are updated to ensure that all provisions continue to apply until the expiry of the collective agreements.

The Result: Most dates have been updated.

Urban specific demands:

U1 Separate Sort and Delivery:

The Demand: Negotiate the end of CPC’s SSD project. Ensure all job tasks removed from letter carriers under SSD, including obtaining, sorting, and preparing mail, are returned to them. Ensure that letter carriers carry out the tasks of obtaining, sorting, and preparing mail on their own routes, except in cases agreed to by the Union and CPC.

The Result: 60% of routes have to start before 10:30 am, the other 40% must start before 12pm. CPC can also create 1 PT router position per installation. SSD will not be applied to foot routes—which will be a moot point if and when CPC completes its centralization/CMB plans. The creation of PT Unstructured positions will allow CPC to patch the holes in their poorly conceived SSD system more easily.

U2 Wages Adjustments and Allowances:

The Demand: Obtain a wage adjustment for all technical services employees to align compensation with fair market value.

The Result: ELE-3s obtained a wage adjustment. All others will get the same raise as other groups.

U3 Groups 3 and 4:

The Demand: Obtain training for all technical services employees on any new technology. Strengthen Article 15.29 to allow technical services employees to have adequate opportunity to accept overtime. Ensure any changes to the Maximo system are negotiated prior to their introduction by CPC. Develop and introduce an apprenticeship program within the VHE09 classification.

The Result: Implementing a better system for overtime calls.

U4: Black Out Periods:

The Demand: Eliminate Black Out periods from Vacation Leave schedules.

The Result: No progress. Status quo.

U5: Temporary Employees:

The Demand: Improve the rights and benefits of Temporary Employees under Article 44.

The Result: Improvements to seniority for future Christmas temps.

RSMC specific demands:

R1: Corporate Vehicles:

The Demand: CPC shall provide an appropriate corporate vehicle for all employees, prioritizing employees who request, while providing insurance, a process, and protections for the transition period such as but not limited to providing roadside assistance for work related vehicle problems.

The Result: No progress. If the corporation decides to convert Rural Mail Boxes to Community Mail Boxes, RSMCs who are currently entitled to corporate vehicles may be forced to return to private vehicles if their routes drop below the 250 RMB threshold.

R2: Ensure RSMCs are paid an hourly wage for all hours worked:

The Demand: Equalize the hourly compensation of Permanent Relief Employees (PREs) and On Call Relief Employees (OCREs) with that of Urban Relief Letter Carriers. Ensure that there will be no recovery of alleged overpayment in relation to the annualized total of PCIs.

The Result: An hourly wage will be implemented for RSMCs route holders who undergo restructures to transition to “the new work method.” There will need to be further studies before these restructures even begin, and they likely won’t be fully completed during the lifetime of the collective agreement. Permanent Relief Employees (now called Permanent Flex Employees) are still paid less than Urban Relief. Alleged overpayments for Personal Contact Items will not be clawed back.

R3: On Call Relief Employees:

The Demand: Improve the rights and benefits of On Call Relief Employees.

The Result: OCREs will now start at a lower rate and take longer to reach the top rate. Appendix “E” of the RSMC agreement will now meet Canada Labour Code entitlements concerning leaves for OCREs. The bidding process is improved and the OCRE groupings are expanded to 30 kms. OCREs now have national transfer rights, meaning they can bid on routes anywhere in the country using their service date.

R4: Union Book-Off Time:

The Demand: Equalize RSMC Union book-off provisions with those of the Urban Collective Agreement.

The Result: No progress.

R5: Discipline:

The Demand: Amend Article 10 Discharge and Discipline in line with Article 10 of the Urban Collective Agreement.

The Result: No progress. Status quo.

R6: Duty to Accommodate:

The Demand: Negotiate a Work Reintegration Program for employees with a disability in line with Article 54 of the Urban Collective Agreement.

The Result: No progress. Status quo.

R7: Compensatory time.

The Demand: Once RMSCs have obtained an hourly rate of pay, obtain Compensatory Time provisions in line with Article 15.32 of the Urban Collective Agreement.

The Result: Obtained. However, the rules for accruing Comp Time will remain the same as the previous CA until the new work method is implemented. It will be years before studies and all restructures are completed, after which RSMCs will be converted to an hourly wage.

R8: Work and Life Balance:

The Demand: Negotiate Work and Life Balance provisions in line with Appendix “LL” of the Urban Collective Agreement.

The Result: No progress.

R9: Parental Rights:

The Demand: Negotiate leave without pay for the care of preschool age children in line with Article 23.09 of the Urban Collective Agreement.

The Result: Obtained.

R10: Other Leaves of Absences:

The Demand: Negotiate other leaves of absences in line with Article 27 of the Urban Collective Agreement.

The Result: Obtained.

R11: Vacation Leave:

The Demand: Negotiate Vacation Leave provisions in line with Articles 19.05 and 19.06 of the Urban Collective Agreement.

The Result: Obtained.