Admail Preparation

In the last round of bargaining with Canada Post Corporation (CPC), our union negotiated the right for carriers to prepare unaddressed admail (aka householders or neighbourhood mail) at the end of the day. In the agreement, as long as the overtime process is respected, supervisors can’t use being on overtime as a reason to deny time for admail preparation. This was to apply to collating admail for all points of call (POC) — including centralized POC — when letter carriers have three or more pieces of admail per POC.

CPC’s Chief Negotiator confirmed this same understanding in November 2016.

In March of 2017, we learned that CPC had told supervisors that they could refuse collating of admail to workers on overtime, in the case of centralized points of call.

As soon as we found out, we communicated with the CPC chief negotiator. He admitted that collating included centralized points of call, but reneged on part of the agreement – that is, he said that for centralized points of call, supervisors could refuse the right to collate for workers on overtime.

 

We Persisted

We took up the issue with high-level CPC management, maintaining our position of what was negotiated. 

Right to Collate Admail for All Points of Call

CPC has confirmed, by a letter dated April 27, 2017, that Appendix D and D-2, shall apply to all points of call, including centralized ones. Overtime will not be a valid reason for refusing admail preparation and collation, including for centralized points of call. But they indicate that this will apply for the duration of the collective agreement and that the matter will come back to the bargaining table for clarification.

Next Round

Although we’ve resolved this issue for the duration of the current collective agreement, we find it unacceptable that CPC reneged on a key part of the agreement. It comes down to a question of good faith; if we can’t be confident that the employer will stand by the agreements that we negotiate at the bargaining table, it undermines the bargaining process. If the approach we’ve just seen is what they bring to the next round of bargaining, it will be a tough round indeed.

Please be informed and get ready for a tough round of bargaining. On this issue, our persistence paid off. Continued persistence, determination and solidarity will be crucial to get through the upcoming bargaining process.

In solidarity,