A collective agreement is a written law contract covering workers grouped into a bargaining unit. The contract is concluded through collective bargaining between the union and the employer. CUPW received the decision of arbitrator Elizabeth MacPherson regarding collective agreements for our two bargaining units at The Canada Post: Urban Operations and Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers. Also in 2018, the September arbitration verdict put in place a major closure on the key issue of pay equity. As I said, gender equality is a fundamental human right, and that judgment is fundamental to the way we pay for RSMCs. The RSMCs will see their salary increases from the January 2019 judgment. The full vote and payment will be made in the fall of 2019, retroactive to January 2016, in accordance with the judgment and agreements reached by the parties. We had a difficult year in which we worked on all of these issues. While we were on a positive financial path during the first half of the year, we have since lost a significant share of our customer base and parcel volume has not increased as expected.

Instead, the quantities of parcels during the holiday period were lower than in the previous year. Across the company, there has been a tremendous amount of work to deal with delays and I would like to thank everyone for their contribution to these efforts. Collective agreements generally include wages and benefits. They also contain job descriptions and classifications, as well as a dispute resolution procedure (usually an appeal and arbitration procedure). You have the right to work in a harassment-free environment. If you are being harassed, inform your Steward store or any other union member you trust. The collective agreement prohibits harassment based on race, sex, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, skin colour, religion, age, marital status, marital status, disability or conviction for a pardon. You can learn more about your right to file a harassment complaint by reading section 56 of the CPC-CUPW contract. Decisions that influence our work and our future should not have been referred to an arbitrator from the outset. Workers have the right to free and fair collective bargaining and, if our right is denied, deprives us of our ability to negotiate solutions to the problems we face in the workplace. In general, you must follow the “obey now, grieve later” rule. That is, you should obey an order from a superior, even if it is contrary to the collective agreement, and then file a complaint explaining the offence.