Canada post workers to start rotating strikes
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
134.32591
Summary
In this episode, we speak with Wycliffe O'Dour, President of the Calgary Local Chapter of the Canadian Union Postal Workers, or CUPW. Wycliffe talks about why the union decided to go on a rotating strike instead of the nationwide strike that had been going on since September 25th.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hello, everyone. My name is Leah Muschett. I'm a reporter here at the Western Standard,
00:00:13.680
and today our guest is Wycliffe O'Dour. He is the president of the Calgary Local Chapter of
00:00:19.720
Canadian Union Postal Workers, or CUPW. Okay, so the big issue today is obviously yesterday,
00:00:27.240
the CUPW announced that they're going on rotating strike instead of the nationwide strike that they
00:00:34.180
had since September 25th. So Wycliffe, thank you again for joining me. And would you mind telling
00:00:41.200
us why the union decided to go on rotating strike instead of the, yeah, switching it over to that?
00:00:47.760
Yeah, thank you so much. Yes, so the union made this call in regards to going into rotating because
00:00:56.800
they had had a meeting with the minister. And so then they chose to use a different strike method.
00:01:08.080
There's different ways of striking, rotating being one of them or a ban on a flyer delivery. And so
00:01:16.960
they've decided to do this now. Mm-hmm. Okay, that makes sense. So in terms of the, yeah,
00:01:25.360
switching strategies basically. So does the union believe that nationwide strike just wasn't working?
00:01:34.800
So they did have a meeting with the minister. The reason why our members were out on strike was
00:01:40.560
because of the announcement that the minister had. They met with the minister. And so then there's a
00:01:47.520
follow-up meeting coming up next week. And so then they, they were able to change the strategy.
00:01:53.920
Okay. Um, I know Black Rock, Black Locks reported, um, that the union released minutes in the newsletter
00:02:03.760
of the first meeting with the minister and, uh, the minister of public works and procurement, Joel
00:02:09.760
Lightbound, who said that he was going to keep the service cuts. And like, he was, wasn't negotiating that.
00:02:16.320
So did the union still have hopes that this is still negotiable, uh, in terms of moving forward?
00:02:23.920
Well, even, uh, he was not able to rescind that and, uh, he made it very clear, but, uh, we are,
00:02:30.400
we are hoping that, uh, or rather pushing so that, uh, he gets to know why, uh, we make a stand as it is. Right.
00:02:40.080
And so the follow-up meeting, uh, is what will determine how, uh, things are going to go. Uh,
00:02:46.960
our members are hoping that, uh, this government will listen to us and allow us to engage because
00:02:53.600
this government, uh, after the minister's announcement, uh, the employer, uh, went back and
00:02:59.920
gave us an offer that was, uh, that was, um, that was rejected by our members and, uh, uh, and actually
00:03:07.920
made it even worse than previously offered. Okay. Like on that note, do you know how long,
00:03:17.280
or can, has the union been talking about how long they estimate the negotiations are going to take
00:03:23.440
before another deal is put forward? Uh, no, we don't know. And, uh, uh, the problem is, uh, even after
00:03:33.600
our members rejected the last offer, Canada Post took almost 50 days before they could respond. And
00:03:40.800
when they did, uh, let us know that they will provide us with an offer, uh, that didn't come in. And
00:03:48.000
when the minister made the announcement that, uh, after the announcement, the Canada Post itself
00:03:53.440
let us know that, uh, they were going to tweak this, uh, offer that they had, uh, in order to, uh,
00:04:00.320
take into consideration the minister's, uh, announcement, uh, which, uh, our members felt
00:04:07.120
betrayed, uh, since, uh, we were in negotiations and the minister seems to have taken sides with the
00:04:13.680
employer. Okay. Well, also then, could you tell me a bit more on what the union is, like, wanting
00:04:24.160
um, out of the new negotiations, like, I guess the most?
00:04:30.400
So Canada Post last offer, uh, they wanted to have more part-time employees, right? And so, uh, we
00:04:42.000
want to reduce that, uh, the percentage that they were asking for was almost 55%. Uh, currently it stands
00:04:50.400
at 75% full-time. And so then, uh, we were up against, uh, precarious work being introduced by
00:04:57.280
Canada Post in a crown corporation. Okay. Well-
00:05:03.120
Well, the issues that we want addressed, uh, because of the current, uh, system that they are,
00:05:09.680
they are using, which is, uh, uh, we see a, uh, a high increase of injury rates.
00:05:20.400
Oh, injury. Okay. I really appreciate you coming on today, Wycliffe. And thank you very much.
00:05:30.240
Thank you. Okay. Well, if you guys enjoyed this video, you guys can subscribe to our YouTube
00:05:37.120
channel, Western Standard. And also if you guys would like to actually check out our website,
00:05:44.240
you can do so it's $10 a month if you subscribe or a hundred dollars a year. So you should do that
00:05:50.800
because we got news and you want news. Um, yeah. So thank you very much and goodbye.