By Keith Lacey, Local Journalism Initiative/Penticton Herald
There wasn’t any Christmas holiday spirit on the picket line in Penticton Monday morning as striking Canada Post workers voiced their displeasure and anger at being forced back to work on Tuesday.
With the first big snow dump of winter falling to the ground, the striking workers were deeply disappointed their month-long strike was coming to an end after the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) ordered a return-to-work decision over the weekend.
This complied with a demand on Thursday by federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon, who directed the board to order 55,000 striking workers back to work if a deal could not be reached.
The Crown corporation said Sunday afternoon that employees would be back on the job Tuesday after CIRB ruled there had been an impasse in bargaining.
Debbie Attrill, president of Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 796 in Penticton, said the membership is frustrated, angry and incredulous that they’re being forced to return to work without a negotiated settlement.
“We are very disheartened and angry,” said Attrill, who was joined by more than a dozen union members on Monday at the Canada Post outlet located on Industrial Avenue W. in Penticton. “We just found out about the Industrial Labour Board decision this morning. We didn’t know exactly what that meant because no one has seen the final written notice.
“I feel like it’s a violation of our rights. We’re being forced to go back to work against our will and that’s not right. There hasn’t been any kind of negotiated settlement and they’re making us do what we don’t want to do without going back to (negotiations).”
The suggestion the government was ordering unionized workers back to try and salvage goodwill from Canadians who are upset the strike with the Christmas holidays only days away isn’t legitimate, said Attrill.
“Christmas season is basically over,” she said. “Really, what are we going to be able to do in the next few days to change things? It’s just an excuse to force us back to work.”
The 100 members of Local 796 who have been without a paycheque for five weeks are almost unanimously upset and angry they’re being forced to return to work without a negotiated new contract, she said.
“We’ve all been out here on the picket line for five weeks without a paycheque and there’s no guarantees they’re going to make an agreement in the next little bit,” she said. “There’s a really good chance we’re going to have to go through this all over again.
“Everyone on the picket line feels a little bit differently, but for the most part, I think there’s a lot of collective anger.”
This is her third time on strike after 17 years of service with Canada Post and it’s infuriating she’s never returned to work after the federal government sat down and negotiated a fair contract, said Attrill.
“The first two times we were locked out and now this forcing us back,” she said.
The union’s demands are not unreasonable as they want a fair wage, decent pension and pay increases that at least match the growing cost of inflation, said Attrill.
“It breaks my heart, when I have people (fellow union members) coming to me telling me ‘I really need dental work, but I just can’t use my benefits because I just can’t pay my rent’, ‘I need food and what I have left is just not covering that,”’ she said. “We need a livable wage. If you look at the wages of other people in our industry, they make far more than we do.”
Even more maddening is that senior managers make outlandish wages and Canada Post remains a top-heavy organization with far too many managers, while front-line staff struggle to make ends meet, she said.
Doug Ettinger, president and Chief Executive Officer of Canada Post, makes big bucks, while front-line workers who have more and more demands put on them with each passing year struggle to get by, she said.
“We’ll never really know what he makes,” she said. “But we do know he gets $450,000 as a base wage, plus his benefits, plus he also sits on the board for Purolator, so he also gets paid from them,” she said. “I don’t know the exact amount, but it’s a lot.
“On top of that, we have 20 vice presidents. What company with 55,000 employees, needs 20 vice presidents? It’s ridiculous. We’re so top-heavy, it’s ridiculous.”
From being in contact with other CUPW local presidents, it’s been confirmed there is one supervisor for every 10 front-line workers at Canada Post, she said.
“That’s just ridiculous,” she said. “This office right here beside us used to be managed by one man and his secretary and we had twice as many employees at that time than we do now.
“We had way more routes, because mail volume was way up, and now we have four, full-time supervisors. It’s ridiculous.”
The blame for the current labour situation can be shared by the federal government, but mostly by Ettinger and senior management at Canada Post, who refuse to bargain in good faith, she said.
“Most of the blame lies with Mr. Ettinger as we do fall under his leadership and what he’s done to the employees, the people that I work with and represent, is disgusting,” she said. “The federal government is also to blame. This is supposed to be a free country and we have constitutional rights such as the right to strike, yet again they’ve ordered us back to work.”
Joining a union, paying union dues and then having your right to strike taken away and being forced back to work by the government is not right, said Attrill.
“They’re taking away our right to fight for what we believe in and what we think is right,” she said.
Being forced back to work is not going to create a good atmosphere for her union brothers and sisters, especially after not earning any pay for five weeks on the picket line, she said.
“Right now, we’re just sort of taking the temperature of the members,” she said. “I want to just hear what each of them feels about what’s happened and what they think we should do.
“Ultimately, that’s what a union is. It’s about everybody sticking together and making decisions that are best for all of us.”
The 55,000 union members deserve pay hikes that allow them to live a decent quality of life and this labour dispute won’t be resolved until Canada Post leadership makes a fair offer, said Attrill.
“We’re just asking for pay increases that keep up with the price of living, at a bare minimum,” she said. “We’ve been continually going backwards. Through Covid, we took a deal thinking we would get the right to actually get a negotiated collective agreement this time.
“So we extended the contract for three years and agreed to two per cent the first two years and last year we got nothing, so we’ve had four per cent over three years and the cost of living has gone up significantly over that time. We don’t want to go backwards any more.”
Union members do feel bad about the interruption of service due to the labour dispute a month before Christmas, but the timing isn’t the union’s fault, she said.
“At the same time, we hope people realize our workers have families and have to eat too and that’s 12 months of the year. We have rent to pay, food to buy, car insurance just like everyone else.”
