Carney Liberals force posties to vote on offer

The Liberal government has been building quite the portfolio of interfering with the constitutional rights and freedoms of workers over the last decade.

It first started with—surprise—postal workers, who had started rolling strikes in 2018, when the Liberals and Conservatives banded together to pass Bill C-89, forcing them back to work.

In 2021, they teamed up with the Conservatives again, making it illegal for dockworkers in Montréal to continue their week-long strike.

Last year, these workers went on strike again after the employer refused to negotiate in good faith. The so-called “labour” minister directed the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to force everyone back to work and impose binding arbitration on the workers.

To make matters worse, Steve MacKinnon, the Liberal labour minister, added striking dockworkers in BC to the same directive.

This past summer, the Liberals had the CIRB impose binding arbitration on Canadian National Railway Company and Canadian Pacific Kansas City, forcing their workers, too, to accept a contract they weren’t allowed to negotiate.

Then back in December, the Trudeau government forced postal workers back to work after they had been on strike for weeks, in response to being locked out by Canada Post.

That is 6 times over the last decade. And we are not done yet.

As part of having postal workers forced back to work in December, MacKinnon commissioned Willaim Kaplan to compile an industrial inquiry and make recommendations on how the two parties should proceed.

That inquiry released its report two months ago and highly favoured the employer, almost entirely snubbing the concerns of the workers. The report provided 3 recommendations:

1. Canada Post could put a final offer for workers to vote on
2. Imposed or agreed to interest arbitration
3. A strike or lockout, but with the assurance from the Government that it will not interfere

The two parties went forward with the first option, and Canada Post is taking it literally: giving a final offer and refusing to negotiate on it.

After 11 days of refusing to negotiate with the workers and the workers responding by not voting on an inadequate offer, Canada Post submitted a request to the Liberal government under Mark Carney to force the workers to vote on it.

Patty Hadju, Canada’s minister of jobs and families, happily obliged. That vote is supposed to occur today.

Remember, they are voting on whether to vote on just what Canada Post has offered. The workers will not be able to vote on what their democratically elected negotiating committees offered.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has been strongly encouraging its members over the last month or so to reject the offer. Which is understandable given that it would take away worker beenfits, create a 2-tier wage structure, and does not make up for lost real wages.

The national executive board of the CUPW unanimously recommends that workers reject the offer. As well, over 70 local executive committees have recommended that CUPW members vote against the pitiful offer.

If the workers vote yes and ratify the agreement, it will mark 10 years since they have received a negotiated agreement.

The 2018 agreement was imposed on them, and that agreement was extended to 2023. If they ratify this agreement, it will be an agreement that the employer wanted, not one the workers negotiated.

And we have not even touched on the fact that some of these workers will lose their jobs when Canada Post starts implementing the cuts that Carney has directed them to find.