**** Update on pay equity process ****

Follow this link to get updates on the Pay equity issue

Pay equity updates

Bill C-377

Friend,

We are launching a petition against Bill C-377. Of course, I would encourage you to sign it.

We need your help to circulate it. I would ask you a little favour. Please, send this link (http://chn.ge/R25d9B) to your friends and your members. You can also share the petition on Twitter and Facebook.

 Thank you!

Alexandre Boulerice

NDP MP for Rosemont - La Petite-Patrie

Labour critic 

PS. The conservatives are using different tactics to get an earlier debate for third reading on C-377. It could be that the first hour of debate would be as early as December 5th and the final vote before the end of the present session. Be assured that we will do everything in our power to try to stop the adoption of this odious Bill!

Message from the National Executive - Septembre 17, 2012 - Click here to access the message in PDF

PSAC formally served Canada Post Corporation with notice to bargain today, August 30, 2012.

What to Expect

Serving notice to bargain means the official start of the process to negotiate a new Collective Agreement to replace the one that expires on August 31, 2012.

Your Collective Agreement Remains in Force Until Further Notice

Once notice to bargain has been served, the current provisions of the collective agreement remain in place until either a new Collective Agreement is reached, or the parties cannot agree to a new Contract.

In the meantime, if the Employer violates the collective agreement or changes your working conditions unilaterally – let your union steward know immediately.

CPC is prohibited by law from making any arbitrary changes to the provisions of your contract or any working conditions that were in place prior to the expiry of the Collective Agreement. Your union will take the appropriate steps to put a stop to such actions.

What Happens Next

Your bargaining team has assembled the Bargaining Input that was submitted and debated by members earlier this year at the UPCE PSAC National Bargaining Conference. The team has been working over the spring and summer to put together a comprehensive set of proposals that will be presented as soon as CPC and the Union team are able to meet.

We are at the very early stages of bargaining and you can expect additional information to be emailed directly to all members who have provided their personal email addresses to us in the near future and as bargaining progresses.

In the meantime if you have any bargaining questions, please direct them to the email address below.

CanadaPost-Nego-PostesCanada@psac-afpc.com

weblink: http://www.psac.com/news/2012/bargaining/20120831-e.shtml

In Solidarity,

Your Bargaining Team

Manitoba Sales Tax on Group Life Insurance Premiums

The budget announced that sales tax will be applied to prescribed insurance premiums under a group insurance contract, effective July 15, 2012. The tax will apply where the insured is a person resident in Manitoba or the premiums are paid in respect of property located in Manitoba.

Impact: The Manitoba sales tax will be deducted on group disability and life insurance premiums for plan members who reside in Manitoba, effective July 15, 2012.

To review the 2012 Manitoba budget documents, please visit the following Web site:

Taxation Adjustments 2012

The Retail Sales Tax Act

The Canada Post Corporation is dragging its feet and refusing to properly implement the 2005 Order of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in November 2011. This further delays pay equity payments to thousands of current and former employees.

The recent delay is due to the Corporation’s belief that they only need to pay interest on 80% of the pay equity money they owe. PSAC believes interest should be paid on the whole amount. The Corporation’s position is unacceptable and will result in significantly lower payments to our members, only to be pocketed by Canada Post.

The union has now sent notice to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that we are disputing Canada Post’s interpretation of the decision.

We understand how long our members have been waiting for Canada Post to pay up on pay equity. But we will not allow the Corporation to weaken the historic court order.

Canada Post needs to finalize the payments now. The Supreme Court has spoken and Canada Post continues to dither and to try to horse-trade with the rights of their employees and retirees.

Other links regarding pay equity:

http://psac.com/what/payequity/canadapost/apr19_05-e.shtml
http://psac.com/news/2011/issues/20111117-e.shtml

BARGAINING UPDATE

June Preparation Session

Your bargaining team comprised of Hélène Arbique, Brian Collins, François Paradis, Kristin MacLean along with Shawn Vincent, PSAC Research Officer and Erna Post Negotiatior, met in Ottawa June 24 to 27 to continue the work we started  in April upon conclusion of the bargaining conference.
The team is currently reviewing all the bargaining proposals that have been submitted from the membership and discussed at the bargaining conference. We are scheduled to meet several more times over the summer months in July and August in order to prepare for what we anticipate will be a very challenging round of negotiations.  

As soon as the team is in a position to provide additional information, we will be communicating to all members.  This will take the form of a bulletin which will be posted on the PSAC and UPCE websites with a copy provided through the PSAC Regional Office Representatives, the steward network and to the personal emails each of you have provided us.

The PSAC/UPCE will not provide any bargaining information to a Canada Post e-mail address, so if you have not done so already, please contact your PSAC Representative or your union steward and provide them with your personal e-mail address. They will forward the information through the proper channels to ensure that we add it to the e-mail tree.  All future bargaining related communications will then be received by you directly into your personal e-mail.  This is a very good way to keep apprised of developments during the negotiations of your new collective agreement.  

In the meantime, the current provisions of the collective agreement will remain in effect to August 31 2012. Once notice to bargain is provided and/or bargaining commences, there will be a statutory freeze on all terms and conditions of the current collective agreement.  This freeze will remain until there is either an impasse in bargaining, which could lead to possible job action, or, there is a new collective agreement that has been ratified.  Both scenarios will require a vote by you and your co-workers in the bargaining unit.

That means your current collective agreement will remain in place until further notice.

Stay tuned for additional updates over the summer months as we will be providing additional information after the next set of team meetings.  Keeping yourself informed is the best way to ensure your voice is heard.

In Solidarity,

Your Bargaining team

Canada Post recently stated that they have suffered a financial loss. Several factors may have impacted the financial performance of Canada Post in the last financial year, including the lock-out imposed on CUPW by Canada Post itself and the return to work legislation going with it, as well as the continued erosion of mail volumes.

However, Canada Post is saying that the decision by the Supreme Court to grant pay equity to our current and former members is also a factor. How the pay equity decision of the Supreme Court has anything to do with the financial performance of Canada Post for the past year, since Canada Post has not yet implemented that decision?

The decision was handed down in 2011 but so far, not a single dollar has been paid to any of the 6 000 members who have been underpaid by Canada Post between 1982 and 2002. Like most of our members and the employees of Canada Post, I cannot accept that the pay equity decision won by PSAC has any impact on the revenues of Canada Post.

It looks more like Canada Post never accepted its responsibility regarding the pay equity and whoever was in charge during the last 28 years just ignored the situation hoping that Canada Post would win its case.

It is very sad to see such a large Corporation trying to find excuses and blame the Supreme Court for finally providing equal pay to thousands of workers for the poor financial performance of 2011.

Yvan Bélanger
National President
Union of Postal Communications Employees