News release

December 9 , 2004

Fredericton and Antigonish are early targets

Strike at Canada Post

Ottawa - As of 6:00 a.m. this morning, members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) working at Canada Post offices in Fredericton N-B, and Antigonish N.S. began rotating strike action which will soon impact all points of service at Canada Post.

“Strike action became inevitable due to the wholly unreasonable series of rollbacks asked of the 2500 PSAC members by Canada Post,” said Luc Guevremont, President of the PSAC component Union of Postal Communications Employees (UPCE).

“This is the tenth consecutive year of record profits at Canada Post. Despite this, they want to impose a collective agreement on our members that is inferior to all other agreements reached with other employees at Canada Post. Compounding this inequality, they are attempting to increase employee contributions while reducing overall benefits to our members. Our members have categorically rejected this discriminatory offer,” Guevremont added.

The employer has tabled proposals that contain rollbacks on health benefits, severance pay, various leaves and more. Other outstanding issues include job security as well as staffing of positions and salaries.

Last November, the 2500 PSAC members at Canada Post voted 73% in favour of undertaking strike action – a higher mandate from when PSAC members were last forced to undertake strike action back in 2001.

“Once again, Canada Post management is targetting a group largely comprised of women” said Patty Ducharme, PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President for British Columbia, responsible for negotiations with Canada Post. “While agreements offering 3% per year have already been negotiated for other employees, Canada Post management has offered a paltry offer of 2.25%, 2.25%, 2.4% and 2.4% per year for the next four years to PSAC members. It’s hardly surprising that this has resulted in strike action by our members and is bound to lead to service disruptions during the important pre-Christmas period,” Ducharme added. “We are optimistic that the work disruption will be short-lived, given that it is the highest mail volume period of the year.”

The 2,500 PSAC members at Canada Post provide customer service and perform administrative, financial, technical and professional duties. Two thirds of this group is composed of women.

-30-

For information: Pierre Lebel, PSAC Communications - (613) 560-5482 or 293-4663

111-091204