December 2018 The Canadian Postmaster CPAA on the Hill IN THIS ISSUE: Meeting with MPs to • Updates and reports: make our presence and Just for You, our issues known negotiations and more! (details inside) • How one post office was saved and more... Contents 1 National President’s Message 4 Postmasters on the Hill 8 Labour Relations Report 9 Negotiations Update 10 Just For You 2018 The Canadian Postmaster is 12 A Post Office Saved published and mailed to members twice a year. Agreement No. 40069832 / ISSN 0008-4794 13 In Memoriam Editing, design and layout: Aalya Ahmad 14 A Postmaster's Perspective CPAA National Office National President Brenda McAuley National Vice President National Vice President Dwayne Jones Daniel L. Maheux National Labour Relations Officer Sonia Dupuis Support Staff Sylvie Duguay Lynn Beaulne Pascal Leroux Aalya Ahmad Vanessa Leblond Our cover photo shows Branch Presidents and National Officers heading to Parliament Hill on October 17th, 2018, for a day of lobbying Members of Parliament on rural postal issues (see story on p. 4). From left to right: Connie Kelloway (Ontario), Jacqueline Mingo (Maritime), Brenda McAuley (National President), Yolanda Kreitzer (Saskatchewan), Chantal Guillemette (Quebec), Daniel Maheux (National Vice President, French), Kimberly Hunt (Newfoundland and Labrador), Janet Johnson (Manitoba), Barbara Lincoln (BC and Yukon), Xan Moffatt-Toews (Alberta, North- west Territories and Nunavut), Dwayne Jones (National Vice President, English). The Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association 281 Queen Mary, Ottawa, ON K1K 1X1 Telephone: 613-745-2095 Fax: 613-745-5559 Email: [email protected] Website: www.cpaa-acmpa.ca National President's Message The following is an edited version of the report delivered by the National President at CPAA's Annual Meeting in October. For a full copy of this report, please contact the National Office. his certainly has been another eventful year for CPAA, with continuous challenges being Tmet by this Association. Political Action On January 24, 2018, the Minister of Public Services and Procurement Carla Qualtrough announced the government’s new vision for Canada Post, which included references to innovation and service expansion, and announced there would be no further cuts, officially ending the previous 5-point plan. Additionally, Prime Minister Trudeau announced at a town hall meeting that there would be no Brenda McAuley with Irene Mathyssen (NDP MP service cuts. London-Fanshawe) at the Canadian Rural Revitalization Conference in Saskatoon, SK, The CPAA held a press conference advocating for Irene's private member's bill (M-166) with other postal unions that same day and to restore the postal bank. While M-166 did not pass, reaffirmed that we wanted to be able to many more rural residents and groups are now aware do more at the post office to support and of and support the idea of having financial and other strengthen rural Canada, such as accessible improved services at the post office. banking services, broadband and more. We also called for pay equity for all postal Minister Bill Morneau about pension issues workers and for an end to the cuts and and pay equity. We demanded that the govern- closures of rural post offices. At the semi- ment abandon Bill C-27 and instead work with annual meeting with Canada Post manage- unions to preserve and expand defined-benefit ment, CPAA took the opportunity to present pension plans. Bill C-27 is on the back burner our thoughts and suggestions about the for now. government’s announcement regarding the In October, the entire CPAA Board of future of Canada Post. We believe as a result Directors met with many Members of the government’s announcement (and of Parliament to lobby for increased services possibly our push at the meeting), that Canada in our post offices in advance of the second Post put a freeze on all office reductions that reading of M-166, a private member’s bill would affect hours to the public. introduced by NDP MP Irene Mathyssen In March, we went with over 300 other (London-Fanshawe) to restore postal banking. activists to Parliament Hill to talk to Finance More details further on in this magazine! United 2018 We learned that Canada Post conducted Nations during not just one but six secret studies on postal International banking! CPAA issued a press release to Women’s Week. I expose the growing use of financial technolo- spoke on a panel gies in the post office, a backdoor way of pri- with representa- vatizing postal banking. tives from other The second quarterly financial report trade unions, for Canada Post for 2018 shows that CPC has Indigenous lead- been reclassified to remove the requirement to ers, and women’s pay a dividend to its shareholder, the organizations. federal government. This will allow the Our presentation Corporation to reinvest profits in service and on postal banking POSTAL SERVICE innovation. Additionally, the Corporation says as an issue for AND THE POST CARBON ECONOMY in this report that it will "promote affordable rural women was remittance service to Canadians who send extremely well 1 money overseas to support family members. received by In an effort to increase market share, the new Canadian politicians in attendance. Chair and Board of Directors will help build In May 2018, Jackie Mingo, Maritime more collaborative relationships with commu- Branch President, and Daniel Maheux, nities, employees, labour and other stakehold- National Vice President, staffed a booth at the ers." The overall change in direction has made Federation of Canadian Municipalities it very clear to us how important our political conference in Halifax to promote public postal action in keeping pressure on the government services to councillors and mayors from across can be in rural Canada. CPAA continues to work with stopping service cuts and closures and the Delivering Community Power coalition determining our working conditions. to promote its vision for enhancing postal services and making Representing the transition to a CPAA fairer and greener economy. Thanks Our Constitution to the CPAA’s work, states that CPAA our allies and oth- collaborates with ers know that postal other trade unions and banking is a solution community groups to for rural and Indig- advance the interests enous communities. of our members. As Additionally, we have 95% of our member- been working with ship are women, it is Transport Canada, not surprising that the Postmasters and CPAA was invited to a In front of the Marmora, Ontario, post office Canada Post explor- delegation representing with postal workers from Belleville, to talk ing the potential of women working in about postal banking to Marmora residents, our post offices to sell rural Canada at the who just lost their bank branch. bus tickets because of 2 a new decision on two issues. The first is whether there is a male-dominated job class when we filed the complaint. If there is no male-dominated job class, there is no vio- lation of the Pay Equity Act. The second is whether there was a gap in compensation. Both of these questions will be decided in the next phase, the hearing on the merits. To assist with these questions, we hired a pay equity expert who submitted her report to the Tribunal October 15, 2018. CPAA has now selected a mediator, Larry Steinberg. Finances The 2017 audit shows expenses of $2,100,297 over revenue of $2,382,279. The most signifi- cant reasons for this variance were the National Triennial Convention and the activities of our Committees as well as the increase in grievance files going to arbitra- tion. The general cost of maintaining our property at 281 Queen Mary, amounts to Acting Postmaster Kym $25,233 for 2017. On March 20, 2018, CPAA Donahue of Marmora hired its first Communications Director in order to have in-house expertise in commu- Greyhound pulling out of the West and North nications, research, and political campaigns. at the end of October. Other new staff, a Finance/Administrative Assistant and an Administrative Assistant, Labour Relations have also joined our national office. To date, 2018 has been a good year for CPAA. Things are coming together quite In July 2018, Canada Post management nicely at 281 Queen Mary, now that our dropped 36 grievances it had filed against vacancies are filled, and we have a full com- CPAA for refusing to close post offices on plement of very capable staff. I look forward Saturdays. We continue to strive to seek the to continuing to work together in harmony best working conditions and renumeration with all the officers, staff and members, being for our members. Please see the additional mindful of our CPAA motto: updates from our Chief Negotiator and from To build up, not destroy. our Labour Relations Officer in this maga- zine. To improve, not to hinder. Pay Equity Complaint Now that we have confirmation our com- plaint covers the period of September 1992 to March 1997, we are pushing ahead to get 3 POSTMASTERS ON THE HILL n Wednesday, October 17th, 2018, a Many of the MPs we spoke to were not Ofew days before the second hour of even aware that CPAA existed as a debate on Irene Mathyssen’s Private separate union, let alone as the oldest Members Bill (M-166), our CPAA Board postal union in the country. They were very of Directors, consisting of all Branch interested to hear about us and to learn Presidents and National Officers, took that there were distinct issues for rural time during the regular Board meeting to Postmasters and Assistants. We met many go to Parliament Hill for a day of lobbying MPs who had plenty of rural post offices in MPs. We wanted to get support for M-166, their ridings and some who had none, but to restore postal banking, but also to talk who were supportive nonetheless.