President’s Meeting

Brothers and Sisters:

4 - 5 February 2007 saw a National CUPW Presidents meeting held in Toronto, ON, despite horrendous weather conditions that caused many delays in both the arrival and departure of the delegates. Despite these obstacles, the collective sense of all CUPW leadership was a near unanimous rejection of the employers proposed CTI (Corporate Team Incentive) that WILL pit one CUPW member against another and destroy our union from within.

Canada Post's president, Moya Green, and her negotiation team was adamant about keeping it high on the list of CPC demands and did so to the final hour of negotiation. For this reason there was no agreed settlement prior to the end of the collective agreement, 2400 hrs 31 January 2007.

This lone CPC demand and its potential fallout provoked the union leadership and forced our hands so we advised the CUPW NEB & NEC to reject CPC's final offer. CUPW's focus is avoiding conflict on the work floor, the future of junior members and very concerned about the long-term survivability of our union. CTI will ensure these three issues are attacked; our solidarity dismantled and productivity increased in all areas of the work floor.

Also a great concern was the fact that fundamentally the CTI is in direct conflict with our union's National constitution. Article B-1 reads, "…the union rejects all forms of wage restraints, whether in direct form or indirect, such as "Taxation Incentive Programs or productivity-based increases." CTI had to be rejected for the interest of all CUPW members. CTI is a union busting scheme, pure and simple!

Yes, the CTI offers members money but how much and for how long? A very big concern with the CTI is the long term ramifications, secondly the fact the CTI proposal is filled full of subjective words like can and may that provide no guarantees to the employee that it will continue to exist past the first year of implementation.

This narrative is a summary of the topics discussed, many time passionately, but it is a general view as to why the presidents rejected the final offer. So, now that the delegates of this meeting have been briefed, the locals will hold meetings to educate their members and will take direction from the union leadership. The presidents gave a very clear direction and they are prepared to act.

Strike votes are scheduled to occur in March but may occur earlier to deal with the CTI issue. So, read the union bulletins; complete your strike information forms and submit them to any one of the many shop stewards. Come to the local meetings for the passage of information, ask questions, speak to your shop stewards and also be prepared to act! The struggle continues.

In solidarity,

//signed//
Robert Garnier
Secretary Treasurer
CUPW, Breton local #117

Jan 31 General Membership Meeting

Jan 31, 2007 saw our first GMM of the New Year and a very full agenda. The swearing in of new CUPW members from the CUS sector, new shop stewards and a new Vice President of the local kept the attention of the 50 plus attendees of this marathon meeting. Also in attendance were Regional CUPW officers, Kevin Buckland and Jeff Callaghan to specifically update CUS members and provide a comprehensive negotiations update to all urban members.

The enthusiasm of the new shop stewards to accept the duties was refreshing because as our older members retire there must be someone to replace these life-long activists. Regional Officers acknowledge this fact and have graciously provided Breton local # 117 with an opportunity to train all these new members at the Steelworkers Hall location, Sydney, NS. A tentative date for training these shop stewards is 24 & 25 Feb 2007. NOTE: It is not too late for other Breton local # 117 members wishing to have this stewards training to be added to the nominal roll of the course.

Also at the meeting the vacant position of Vice President was filled by Sister Faye Hanna. Her decision to accept the nomination will bode well for Breton local # 117 and it's members. Sister Hanna has worked tirelessly as the president of our women's committee and has made a definite impact in her short carreer as a Canada Post employee and CUPW activist.

The Executive looks forward to working with Faye, the new shop stewards and the new CUS members to work as a cohesive team to fight the employer at each and every injustice. Welcome everyone!

Brothers Callaghan and Buckland addressing CUS members	Standing Room only, GMM 31 Jan 2007
Swearing in CUS members	Sworn in CUS members
Swearing in new Shop Stewards	Swearing in new Shop Stewards
Jeff Callaghan, New Vice President, Faye Hanna, Gordie MacDonald	New Shop Stewards sworn in

Jan 31, End of Our Contract

Jan 31, 2007 at 2400 hrs saw the end of our collective agreement with Canada Post. To date we have not had much movement on eight major issues that could result in a CUPW work action or CPC lock out.

Picket signs were taken into the workplace to have the employer acknowledge the end of our contract and to show Breton local #117's opposition to the CTI (Corporate Team Incentive) proposal that would replace any real wage increase and worse, pit one member against another.

The local's executive visited all eight Breton local # 117 CUPW offices on this last day of our contract carrying strike signs. Breton members were informed of the CTI pitfalls and strike information sheets were distributed in the event of any work disruption.

It is clear what a strike can do to our customer base but if Canada Post fails to bargain in good faith on these eight major issues Breton members can be on strike as early as May 2007.

CUPW JOSH Course Jan 23-25
New Glasgow, NS

Jan 23-25, 2007 saw JOSH (Joint Occupational Safety and Health) training (5th of 6 sessions) held in the Museum of Industry, New Glasgow, NS. As this course was a joint union/management effort it took some time to agree on the curriculum and the course plan to be established. The course's third revision saw an agreement by the two parties to train JOSH Committees throughout the Atlantic region.

As Canada Post was seen to have not met in the Dept of Labour's standard in it's Health and Safety responsibilities, the push was on to train most committee members in Atlantic. Each and every member of Canada Post will be trained by facilitators for no less than a 2hr course to meet the law as stated in the Canadian Labour Code Pt. 2. Canada Post's initial timetable is aggressive and CPC hopes to have us all trained in Atlantic no later than June 30, 2007.

The course material was informative with full participation a must. CUPW facilitator Rick Murray did an excellent job mastering the subject matter while keeping the class's attention. As this was the very first joint CPC / CUPW training course, some trepidation was experienced by some or all of the participants. To the credit of all involved, this session of the course was considered by most to be a success.

Breton local JOSH members	Truro local JOSH members
New Glasgow course graduates (5 of 6)	CUPW facilitator, Rick Murray, St. John's Local
Pictou / New Glasgow locals JOSH members	Course members - Solidarity Forever
Course members - Solidarity Forever	Course members - Solidarity Forever