For postal worker Tracey Langille, the end to a roughly one-month strike has been a “roller-coaster” of frustration.
About 55,000 union members returned to work at Canada Post on Tuesday after the Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered an end to their roughly one-month strike.
“I was in shock,” Langille said, adding she did not expect the government to force union members back to work after so long. This was her third strike at Canada Post.
The Burlington, Ont., letter carrier is also president of Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) Local 548, which represents about 1,600 members across 16 workplaces in the Hamilton area. Most members she’s heard from are “angry and upset” with the federal government, she said.
Canada Post agreed to give workers a five per cent wage increase retroactive to when their collective agreements expired. Otherwise, workers returned under their existing contracts, which were extended to May so bargaining can continue.
For its part, CUPW called the board’s order a “clear violation” of members’ rights, and plans to challenge it at the board and in court.
“We have waited far too long for our issues to be resolved, in collective bargaining, but, once again, the government has stepped in, tipping the scales in the employer’s favour,” CUPW national president Jan Simpson said in a statement on Tuesday. “Their interference will make us wait longer and add other issues to the table.”
Striking postal workers on a picket line at the Canada Post depot on Frid Street in Hamilton played music and huddled around bonfires to keep warm as wind chill dipped to make it feel like -15 C in early December. (Justin Chandler/CBC)
Whenever the government intervenes in a strike, issues are left unsettled, Langille said.
“Canada Post always negotiates with us like the government is going to give them what they want.
“Postal workers aren’t just looking at this as an attack on postal workers,” she said, but as “an attack on labour.”
Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon appointed a commission to review issues that prevented a negotiated agreement and make related recommendations.
“Our commitment has always been to reach negotiated agreements with the [CUPW] that would help us better serve the changing needs of Canadians and provide good jobs,” Canada Post said in a statement on Dec. 13. “We remain committed to doing so within this new process while also meeting the postal needs of Canadians.”
Across Canada, CUPW members expressed displeasure with being forced back to work. Some picketed as long as possible while certain locals considered defying the order.
That was a discussion in Langille’s local, she said, but they agreed to follow the directions of the national union and return to work.
While picketing outside a postal depot in early December, Langille and union member Kevin Delaney told CBC Hamilton theirs was part of a broader fight for good jobs.
By opposing gig work and pushing for wages that keep up with inflation, CUPW members are fighting for all Canadians, they said.
Call for more financial transparency from Canada Post
Langille said she knows some people think postal workers have it good enough now and shouldn’t ask for more.
“As unionists, we have to take every opportunity we can to educate or explain to people that if everyone just settles, it quickly becomes a race to the bottom,” Langille said. “We have to keep striving to raise the bar.
“I am thankful for what I have,” she added. “I want everyone else to have that too, because I think as Canadians, we deserve that.”
For example, Langille said, she joined Amalgamated Transit Union members at Hamilton city hall to advocate for the coming light rail transit line to be publicly run and operated by the union — a proposal city council ultimately decided against.
Striking postal workers have said they want better jobs for themselves and all Canadians. (Justin Chandler/CBC)
Going forward, Langille said, CUPW will work with Canada Post and the review committee. She said the union will push to ensure that process is transparent.
She added she’d like to see more financial transparency from Canada Post, which said it lost $315 million before taxes in the third quarter.
So far, Langille said, she hasn’t heard much feedback from members about the return to work, but she’ll be checking in to hear more.
The strike may be over, but “we’re not done yet,” she said.