Source
r/canada•
OttCap

Two-tiered collective bargaining

It isn't just Canada Post doing this, many large corporations are doing this and us working young are the ones faced with the working changes because we were never around during bargaining. Not only does it happen with wages but also the worst working conditions, hours and overtime are negotiated to the most junior employees. It effectively creates a backwards work environment whereas the most experienced employees handle the easiest work and the inexperienced handle the more challenging work.

http://montrealgazette.com/news/national/opinion-two-tier-pension-plans-at-issue-in-the-canada-post-talks-give-millennials-the-short-end-of-the-stick

Posted Jul 25, 2016, 11:46 PM UTC

37
jehovahs_waitress•

I have always taken the position that my pay and benefits are best negotiated by myself, rather than some asshole in a union office who somehow always ends up with a decent job no matter how many of his members get laid off.

It has worked out quite well, after I gained marketable skills. Sometimes they were not in high demand, so I got paid less. Sometimes they are, so I get paid more. Seems reasonable.

CUPW(Canada Post union) is operating from a pretty deep hole these days, because the work being negotiated very often has a low level of skill plus the whole mail delivery business is in sharp and irreversible decline.

1
OttCapOP•

I would agree with you, but in most large corporations you can't negotiate your own contract. Everything is done through a union which is there to protect the jobs of usually the least productive and incompetent workers.

2
hisroyalnastiness•

You're just in the wrong line of work. No union here and the lazy and lame get cleared out in regular layoffs, it's great.

1
RCAVict0r•

Welcome to reality. It's always been that way. Older people already paid their dues.

-2†
OttCapOP•

Paid their dues? I thought the whole point of bargaining was to fix working conditions through negotiations, not make them progressively worse for new employees simply because the senior ones did it too

3
Abraxas514•

It's up to the younger employees to negotiate with the existing unions.

Unions are NOT about making working conditions better for everybody. They are 'selfish' (in the capitalism sense) insider negotiations to improve those who negotiated. Some unions allow young people to join easily, some company environments totally screw the new talent.

1
OttCapOP•

Agreed 100%, unfortunately the union brass at any company I have worked for see the younger workers as pawns to negotiate with. They don't see us as a voice, but rather scapegoats for concessions they don't want to give up for themselves. The company I currently work for, which will remain nameless on the internet, has a ratified agreement with unifor (formally the CEP), in our 2010 agreement not only did our union take on more skilled and complicated work (with only a 3% raise over an 8 year period), that work was mandated to be given to junior employees first. The company also saw we had slow periods every few years and wanted to eliminate our "full time" clause, so every new employee was hired as a part time employee, but expected to work 50+ hours a week (because the CBA also says OT goes to part time employees first), the company also wanted to be available to customers on evenings and weekends, so the first clause says a full time employee can only work 2 weekends PER YEAR, guess who works every weekend? The "part time" employee who is already scheduled 40 hours throughout the rest of the week. And oh ya, that 40 hours is mostly through the evenings because a full time employee can only work a max of 16 hours past 5 pm PER YEAR.

These aren't full time employees who have "paid their dues", they always had a monday-friday 9-5 gig, and sacrificed the junior workers to save their asses. Now the junior workers are paying their dues, to the tune of 3% of their paychecks, 26 times per year so that the union brass, who are "full time" employees (who can only work 37.5 hrs per week vs. 50 for a "part time") can sit at home with their families on weekends and watch their kids grow up.

2