Government misses CAW but slams CUPW to the Floor

These are very busy times.  First there was the Air Canada fiasco.  They were out less than a day and the Prime Minister was laying down Back to Work Legislation.  Fortunately the parties concluded an agreement before the Legislation could be passed.  The Canada Post management then decide to lockout workers and again, in less than a day the Minister starts screaming that the economy is falling apart and it is her intent to legislate an end to the dispute.

Canada Post never likes to negotiate. They prefer the government to settle disputes because they usually have a big business friend in the government. They certainly do now. The Legislation is decidedly anti-union.  In the offers exchanged between the parties to date Canada Post offered 1.9% increase.  The union was asking for 3.5%.   The government has decided that Canada Post's offer was too generous and has set the rate at 1.75%. 

The government is not acting to end a dispute, it has decided to take this opportunity to slam the union.  The legislations calls for binding arbitration.  The arbitrator is to take the last union offer and the last employer offer and choose one of them.  There is really nothing to arbitrate. The wages have been set by legislation.  The arbitrator will then decide which proposal will be implemented.  

All of this becomes a roll of the dice for the union. Do they take their chances? I don't envy the Union leaders decisions in the coming days.  

You also have to know if the government really wanted Canada Post and the Union to work out a deal, they could have told the company in which they control 100% of the stock to lift the lock out, told CUPW to go back to work and negotiate   It was that easy.  

The government just missed its chance to slam CAW workers at Air Canada, they won't let that happen again. 

Say Uncle CUPW.

Link to:

An Act to provide for the resumption and continuation of postal services Bill  C-6