The campaign to force Canada Post to recognize rural mail carriers as employees who are eligible for benefits and the right to unionize will return to Parliament this winter, several MPs have promised.
MPs from four of Parliament’s five political parties turned out on Oct. 16 to say they support the campaign to change the Canada Post Act. Only the Canadian Alliance was not represented at the news conference held on the 20th anniversary of Canada Post’s creation as a crown corporation.
Several MPs said they will try to do it through private member’s bills, since the Liberal government does not officially support the proposal.
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Last year, a vote on a private member’s bill sponsored by Winnipeg New Democrat Pat Martin failed by just four votes.
“We should mark the 20th anniversary of Canada Post by fixing this historic injustice once and for all,” Martin said in the House of Commons.
Alice Boudreau, a Shediac, N.B., rural mail carrier and president of the Organization of Rural Route Mail Couriers, told the news conference the country’s 6,000 rural mail carriers often earn less than minimum wage and far less than their unionized urban counterparts.
They are considered “independent contractors” by Canada Post and each must negotiate compensation with the corporation.
The rural couriers organization wants the legislation changed to designate them employees. It claims to represent more than 4,000 of the 6,000 couriers.
“We, the rural and suburban mail couriers of this country, were the workers legislatively denied our basic rights 20 years ago,” Boudreau said.
“We are still denied those rights today.”
Liberal rural caucus chair and Ontario MP Murray Calder said Liberal MPs have been working to help rural mail carriers get “a better deal” and will continue to do so.
He did not specifically promise to fight for the legislative change being sought.
Bloc Québecois MP Ghislain Lebel promised to introduce legislation.
Saskatoon MP Jim Pankiw, a member of the Progressive Conservative Democratic Representative Coalition, said he supports amending the legislation to give rural carriers the right to apply to the Canada Labour Relations Board for employee status.
However, he said that does not mean he is supporting the call for unionization of rural carriers. He said the two issues should not be confused.
“The issue is whether they can apply for employee status and that’s all,” he said. “That does not automatically mean they can or should form a union.”
Pankiw said rural carriers have hurt their cause with some MPs by concentrating on their call for collective bargaining rights.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers supports the rural couriers’ campaign.
