Comrades and friends,

In the blink of an eye we’ll be back into negotiation season for our next collective agreement. Our activist team has been working tirelessly to build alliances with other locals to do the workfloor organizing necessary for our union to have meaningful leverage this round. In this dispatch you’ll see a Labornotes article discussing the strategic importance of our demand to expand our services via postal banking and Delivering Community Power. Other important dispatch updates include a vaccine survey gauging member interest in setting up worksite clinics (1st & 2nd dose) as well as a final registration reminder for our Jun 5 (virtual) GMM.

In Solidarity,

Gearing Up For Bargaining, Canadian Union Pushes For A Greener, Better Postal Service

Excerpt: To win these bold [Delivering Community Power] demands will require a willingness to take militant action that can provide leverage at the bargaining table, says Roland Schmidt, president of the CUPW local in Edmonton, Alberta. This means postal workers must prepare to confront back-to-work legislation.

Full Labornotes Article: Link

Vaccine Prioritization Appeal To AHS And Demand Survey 

On April 6, in an effort to incentivize our members getting vaccinated, I asked CPC Edmonton to allow our members paid time during work to go get a vaccine. Unsurprisingly, CPC declined despite the long term benefit of reducing operation costs lost to quarantine pay. Once again, our local joins other locals in asking CPC to incentivize vaccines by bringing in mobile vaccination sites to our facilities, including an advanced roll-out for second doses. Attached is the open letter sent to AHS and CPC seeking vaccine prioritization for our members providing essential labour during a pandemic. AHS has said they are interested in helping arrange this but will need more data of member willingness to gauge if it is worth their while.

Open Letter: Link


Anonymous Vaccine Prioritization & Willingness Survey

This is an anonymous survey to see how much demand there is to continue to pressure CPC to allow mobile vaccine clinics to be setup at our work facilities to allow for our members to use paid work time to receive their first or second vaccine dose if they so choose. AHS will also need to know general interest levels of our members in order to justify setting up these clinics. This survey does not track who participates in the survey or require any personal information.

Vaccine Survey: Link

(Virtual) GMM: Saturday, June 5, 2021, 11:00 am

As per the direction given by our CUPW National Executive, locals can hold GMMs via video conference as long as quorum is met and all participants have registered with all the required information by the specified deadline. For our full virtual GMM guidelines, please see the accompanying document below the GMM notice.

Register: www.cupw730.ca/home/calendar or LINK

Deadline: Friday, June 4, 2021, Noon. Registrations are confirmed after the deadline.

Those registering after the deadline will not be admitted. Please respect the time and efforts of those administering these meetings. For extenuating circumstances, or help registering, please contact: union@cupwedm.net

Ongoing Reminder: Local Office Access

To stay aligned with the newest health guidelines, our office remains locked and available by appointment only. We are trying to conduct all meetings with members over the phone or via video conferencing. Exemptions can be made for unique circumstances. In either case, please call (780) 423-9000 to arrange an appointment with the appropriate officer. We are extremely busy in the office trying to put out a thousand different fires, so please leave a message if you’re unable to catch us on the phone.