Canada Post said it notched nearly $1.3 billion in operating losses last year as the beleaguered institution laid out its “final offers” to the union representing 55,000 workers after negotiations resumed on Wednesday.
The Crown corporation has now posted seven consecutive annual losses, amounting to $3.8 billion before tax since 2018, it said.
Included in its latest proposal are an end to compulsory overtime, signing bonuses of $1,000 for urban employees and $500 for rural and suburban ones, and cost-of-living payments that are triggered at a lower inflation threshold.
Management’s earlier offer of a nearly 14 per cent cumulative wage hike over four years remains unchanged, as does a plan to hire part-time staff for weekend delivery — a major sticking point in the talks.
Canada Post also aims to launch “dynamic routing” at 10 processing facilities initially, which could see mail carriers’ routes change daily in response to parcel volume.
In a news release, it quoted a federally commissioned report released earlier this month that recommended dynamic routes and part-time weekend positions with similar pay rates, benefits and pension plans to full-time positions.“Canada Post is facing an existential crisis: It is effectively insolvent, or bankrupt,” commissioner William Kaplan wrote in the May 15 report. “The world has changed, and both Canada Post and CUPW (Canadian Union of Postal Workers) must evolve and adapt. Merely tinkering with the status quo is not an option.” A month-long strike last fall stemming from the same contract negotiations cost the organization $208 million, said the annual report released late Wednesday.
Revenue from parcels fell by $683 million or 20 per cent, it said. The union had been in a strike position starting Friday last week but opted instead for an overtime ban.
Canada Post said ongoing uncertainty has pushed down parcel volumes by 65 per cent from the same time last year.
The organization faces big questions about its business model and its future as letter volumes plunge, prompting a $1-billion federal loan in January to keep it afloat.
Lorraine Muller, who worked at Canada Post as a letter carrier until last fall when she turned to sorting mail at a facility in Montreal, says workers have been getting a “bad deal” and that structural reform is needed. But a solution to postal woes is hard to come by. “That’s the toughest question,” she said in an interview on Wednesday. “What do you do? I don’t know.”..
Source: ctvnews.ca
