Presidents Report

General Membership Meeting 

February 25, 2007
 

It’s been a very busy month.  I will cover three of the most important issues currently being dealt with by the Presidents office.

The first and most obvious is the lead-up to ratification on the tentative agreement between CUPW and Canada Post.  The Local Executive recently voted unanimously to recommend local members vote no.   The reasons for this decision have been previously documented in my monthly President Bulletin.  However it is fair to say that the Executives and myself share the view that the tentative agreement falls well short of our demands at this round of negotiations. 

Of special concern is of course the provision of Corporate Bonus Structure in the proposed contract and the drastic cultural change in our work place.  It should be highlighted that the implementation of a bonus scheme runs contrary to everything this Union stands for.  One perspective that needs to be shared is if we accept this flawed deal we have contradicted the very heart of our Unions constitution.  If we agree as a membership to this deal we have agreed to allow the Corporation to begin the process of Union busting... Which cannot happen without a fight.

Another issue that took up a significant amount of time over the past month was the RSMC Route Splits carried out at Deerfoot South.  The Corporation, which has not consulted on any RSMC issue since 2004, persisted in going ahead with these splits.  The information provided by both the Canada Post and the Transition Committee was filled with errors. 

Of 25 RSMC routes that were split on the 19th approximately 14 had significant errors in either time or workload breakdown.  Sister Anna Beale and I continue to try to mitigate the disaster for the RSMC at Deerfoot including bringing the actual members into the decision process for future changes.  The Corporation’s next target for route splitting are depot 4 and depot 11 in mid April, we as an office will do everything we can to ensure that the splits are done better than the Deerfoot experience.

The final issue I wish to mention is the ongoing crisis of workplace harassment and violence.  I cannot strongly enough voice that the employer and its recent decisions have made the situation much worse.  The physical changes in the workplace, the harsh effect on schedule changes and the growing issue of insufficient staffing is only serves to aggravate an already bad situation.  However I urge all our members to do their up most in treating each other with respect.  We are all in this together.  The focus must be placed on the Corporation to live up to its responsibilities to manage our workplace with the best interests of its employees.

Yours in Solidarity
R. Scobel
Robert Scobel
President, CUPW-Calgary Local
 

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