Labour briefs

Steelworkers, telecommunications union plan merger

OTTAWA — In what is rapidly becoming a trend for the labour movement, another merger between two heavyweight unions was announced this week.

On Aug. 29, the United Steelworkers (USW) and Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) reached a tentative agreement to merge the two unions. If approved, the deal would bring together 225,000 USW members and the TWU’s 13,000 telecommunications, cable television and call centre workers.

According to both groups, their goal is to make a strong commitment to the bargaining process, worker education, legislative action and the recruitment of new members.

"Together we’ve built an innovative, flexible merger agreement that blends the best of both of our unions," said Ken Neumann, national director of the USW.

The next step is to have the TWU’s national executive council review the agreement, which they plan to do in early September.

Another major union merger, between the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP), kicked off this Labour Day weekend — solidifying Unifor as the largest public sector union in the country.

New Brunswick teachers head back to school with new collective agreement

FREDERICTON — Teachers in New Brunswick are heading back to school with a brand new collective agreement, signed on Aug. 27.

The deal, reached between the New Brunswick Teachers’ Federation (NBTF) and the provincial human resources and education ministries, applies to more than 9,000 teachers, supply teachers, principals and vice-principals.

As part of the latest four-year agreement, educators will go without wage increases for the first two years, followed by a one per cent wage increase every six months for the remainder of the agreement.

"New Brunswick’s teachers are valued partners in our government’s work to build an enhanced culture of innovation, equity and excellence in the education system," said Jody Carr, education minister. "With this agreement in place, I look forward to continuing our work together to ensure our students receive a quality education in positive, inclusive learning environments on their way to reaching their full potential."

Delivery cuts could fix cash crisis: Canada Post

OTTAWA — The national mail delivery service is up against a serious financial fiasco, according to its latest report.

For now, the company said its current business model can’t sustain its operations. One major hurdle remains its mounting pension obligations, which will reportedly set the crown corporation back at least $1.1 billion in 2014, according to the company.

However, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) argued that while the letter mail slump is certainly real, it is often exaggerated.

"Even once we find a solution for the pension fund, we still need to work out how Canada Post’s operations can remain self-sustaining in the long run," said Denis Lemelin, national president of the CUPW. "That will take imagination and input from all stakeholders, including the public and postal workers. It’s time Canada Post took our suggestions seriously."

He suggested the solution lies in service expansion, citing an increase in parcel post delivery and banking operations at post offices as examples.

Even Canada Post recognized service changes might help mitigate its impending doom. That includes securing changes to its collective agreements to reduce labour costs, automating mail sorting, having one delivery agent perform numerous roles and revamping online services to meet demands.

Earlier this month, the C.D. Howe Institute published a report suggesting privatization would fix Canada Post’s future of financial loss, delivery decline, and costly services.

Alberta’s minimum wage increase doesn’t cut it: AFL

CALGARY — Workers in the province with the lowest minimum wage rates are set to get a raise in September, but the provincial labour federation says it is not enough.

On Sept. 1, minimum wage in
Alberta was bumped up 2.1 per cent from $9.75 to $9.95 per hour, with the minimum wage for liquor servers unchanged at $9.05 per hour. Despite that, the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) denounced the increase, saying it puts most of those workers below the poverty line and has them choosing between rent and food.

"The government’s plan to make annual inflation-based increases to the minimum wage has a lot of merit. The problem is that they started doing so only after many years in which they’d allowed inflation to greatly outpace the minimum wage," McGowan said. "So when they started with the annual increases, the minimum wage was way, way, way too low for Alberta’s economy."

McGowan estimates an employee earning minimum wage at 35 hours a week will earn less than $20,000 a year — well below Statistics Canada’s poverty line of $23,298.

However, the Human Services department said their formula — based on possible increases to average weekly earnings and the consumer price index — is a good starting point for those just entering the work force.

Minister Dave Hancock added only 1.8 per cent of employees in Alberta earn the minimum wage, the lowest percentage of minimum wage earners in all of the provinces.

In Ontario and British Columbia, the minimum wage is $10.25 per hour, and in Nunavut, minimum wage is $11 an hour. On Oct. 1, minimum wage in Manitoba will increase to $10.45.

Taxpayer group calls for crackdown on sick-leave abusers

OTTAWA — The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) marked Labour Day by sending a memo to Ottawa: Crack down on the abuse of workplace sick leave by government employees.

CTF wants the federal government to address the issue when union contracts expire in 2014 and 2015.

"We have more federal government employees booking off sick on any given day than actually show up for work at General Motors and Chrysler combined," said CTF federal director Gregory Thomas. "We’re facing an epidemic of sick-leave abuse amongst government employees and it needs to be stopped."

Pointing to a Treasury Board survey, CTF said federal employees took 17.9 days of sick leave per year. That compares to 6.7 days by employees working outside the government, according to Statistics Canada data from 2012.

Employees at the Department of National Defence took 18.6 days on average in the 2011-2012 fiscal year, and that’s on top of paid vacations which range from three to six weeks, it said. Veterans Affairs employees booked off 24.2 sick days, averaging more than a month of sick time, the CTF said.

Other sick leave counts include:

Immigrant point system should be abandoned: Report

OTTAWA — Canada’s immigrant selection process should rely more on the employment needs of the private sector and pre-arranged contracts for work to ensure new immigrants will prosper, according to the Fraser Institute.

Immigrants who arrived in Canada since 1986 have been less successful economically than those who arrived before that time, said Herbert Grubel, Fraser Institute senior fellow, in his study Canada’s Immigrant Selection Policies.

"Recent immigrants who arrived since 1986 earn less and pay less tax than they receive in benefits from government spending. As a result, they are costing Canadian taxpayers about $20 billion annually," he said.

Canada selects the largest proportion of its immigrants using an objective points system that reflects the candidates’ education, work experience, language competence and other indicators that are linked with higher earnings.

The government refers to these principal immigrants and their dependants as "economic immigrants" who in 2011 numbered 156,121 and represented 62.8 per cent of all immigrants admitted.

Canada also admits, in smaller numbers, asylum-seekers — family members of recent immigrants and other minor groupings. These basic characteristics of the selection system have been in place since the 1960s and remain unchanged.

To fully eliminate the current fiscal burden, the points system should be abandoned, said Grubel, and replaced with pre-arranged contracts for work in Canada as main selection criterion for economic immigrants.