Earlier this week, Teamsters Canada posted an update regarding unionization efforts in Fort McMurray around FedEx workers.
Local 362 of the Teamsters has been trying to unionize workers stationed in the company’s facility in northeast Alberta.
Unsurprisingly, FedEx is not too happy about it. And I say “unsurprisingly” not just because they are a large corporation. I say it also because they have a tendency to undermine unionization efforts.
For example, in early 2019, Local 931 filed an application for certification with the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to become the bargaining agent for about 30 owner-operators employed by FedEx Freight at their Dorval depot.
FedEx Freight tried to undermine that application by arguing that the bargaining unit should also include any drivers that the owner-operators use to drive their trucks, presumably because that would mean that the number of workers that the Teamsters managed to get to sign cards would be in the minority.
Luckily, the CIRB decided in favour of the Teamsters and certified the owner-operators as a bargaining unit on 8 March 2019.
A little over a year later, one of their drivers—Talwinderpal Singh—filed an application to decertify the bargaining unit. After reviewing submissions from Singh, the Teamsters, and FedEx Freight, the CIRB pulled their certification, and the workers were no longer unionized as of 13 May 2020.
As well, the CIRB certified a unit of FedEx Freight in Surrey on 15 September 2014, a year after they began operations. This unionized all dock workers, except drivers, owner-operators, operations associates, dispatchers, supervisors, managers, and anyone above the rank of manager.
Just 3 days later, the workers served notice to the employer to bargain for their first collective agreement. The two parties agreed to meet on 3 and 4 November to begin bargaining, and the worker’s bargaining committee sent their initial proposals to FedEx on 23 October 2014.
Shortly after that, however, the employer cancelled their 3 November meeting and met on the 4th. Instead of initiating bargaining when they met with the worker’s bargaining committee, FedEx told them that they were shutting down the depot, and that they wanted to negotiate a closure agreement instead of a collective agreement.
This time, FedEx is trying a new tactic. According to the Teamsters, FedEx “has filed arguments before the Canada Industrial Relations Board claiming that “temporary workers,” like international students and temporary foreign workers, are not “entitled to” unionize.
Teamsters are challenging this claim, calling it “racist”.
“The idea that immigrant workers with temporary status should be denied union representation is racist and morally indefensible,” said François Laporte, president of Teamsters Canada. “Regardless of how someone came to work at FedEx, they deserve to be treated like any other worker in this country. That means fairness, dignity, and the right to join a union.”
A majority of the workers who would be covered by this union certification—31 of 52, or 60%—are either temporary foreign workers or international students.
Banning them from joining the union would significantly harm the ability of the workers to unionize the Fort McMurray location, never mind the fact that it is inherently unfair to prevent workers from unionizing if they want to.
According to this week’s media release, the Teamsters claim that FedEx workers earn about $3 less per hour than their unionized counterparts at UPS and Purolator.
As well, UPS and Purolator give their unionized workers pensions that are 100% employer funded, while FedEx requires their workers to pay a portion of the pension contributions.
Finally, workers at FedEx are requited to lift and move packages on their own that would require two workers at UPS and Purolator.
