READY, STRONG, UNITED FOR COURIERS by Richard Eichel, Director, Package Division
"We know we are on the right road to better working conditions, better wages and a better future for our membership." During a speech in 1966 Robert F. Kennedy said, “there is a traditional Chinese curse which says, ‘may he live in interesting times’”. Well, like it or not, we are living in interesting times. This has been a time of danger and uncertainty that has taken our industry to the forefront of the needs of business and all society. In September 2021 the Federal government mandated a vaccine policy for air, rail and marine sectors. At that time, they left the road sector out of the mandate. However, the mandate specified the government expected other federal employers to adopt a vaccine policy. UPS took the position that they would maintain their day-to-day pandemic protocols and would not mandate a policy unless forced by the government. Purolator acted on the government expectation, and similar to Canada Post, built and implemented a policy with no input from the union. The policy stated that unvaccinated workers would be suspended and not permitted to remain on the job after a certain date. As you all know, the vaccine mandate has been a divisive piece of parliamentary direction. On one hand, we insist the employer makes the workplace as safe as possible and we know that vaccines do just that.
On the other hand, people’s beliefs and rights must be protected. Balancing the interests of the membership is some days more difficult than others. Such said, the Teamsters, as well as other labour organizations, whether they agree with the vaccine policies and mandates or not, had filed grievances and proceeded to arbitration. The outcome of these cases has now been settled and precedent set. For more information on these decisions, please contact your local union. The seemingly never-ending pandemic saga continues, but we are hopeful that with everyone’s best efforts, one day life will be back to ‘normal’.
UPS Contract The UPS contract that was negotiated and ratified in 2020, is rolling along with ongoing wage increases every six months and is set to expire on July 31, 2025. At the peak of 2021, there were approximately 300,000 Teamsters working for UPS in North America. The American UPS contract will be up for negotiation in 2023 and this is always something we pay close attention to.
2021-2022 bargaining committe, Purolator negotiations. 22
