Sections 107 and 108 of the Canada Labour Code
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For the last several decades, the Canadian government has chosen to intervene in the fair collective bargaining process of its own citizens. Typically, they've done this through the use of back-to-work legislation. The Supreme Court of Canada has found this to be unconstitutional because back-to-work legislation violates our fundamental freedoms and the right to association under Section 2(s) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In 2024, the government used Section 107 of the Canadian Labour Code to force port workers, rail workers, and postal workers back to work. However, if all laws are backstopped by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, then this should also be deemed unconstitutional. However, resisting Section 107 comes with the risk of fines to the tune of millions of dollars every day for workers and their unions.
For port workers and rail workers, the use of Section 107 came with binding arbitration. Binding
arbitration uses a system called replication. With this, an arbitrator tries to find only the smallest
incremental changes required to placate both sides. However, this wasn't a part of the use of Section 7 for postal workers because Canada Post wants drastic changes.
Section 108 of the Labour Code was added to the Minister's order that created the Industrial Inquiry Commission. The timeline for this Commission was restrictive and doesn't allow for meaningful public consultation, while the public are the 100% owners of the post office. There was only a small window of time for the public to give input through email. This was not advertised by the government or the Corporation and emails were frequently rejected by an overloaded email system.
It appears that the government and the Corporation are working together to fundamentally change the way your post office operates.
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The Industrial Inquiry Commission has a broad mandate:​​
Mandate
• Review the issues that prevented the
Union and the Employer from reaching
negotiated agreements;
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​• Make recommendations about how to
amend the collective agreements;
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​• Make recommendations about “any other
changes” to be made;
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• Make recommendations about “the
structures, rights and responsibilities” of
the Union and Employer in collective
bargaining
Response
• It is clear from the actions of Canada Post
and the government that the employer
never intended to reach an agreement with
their workers and instead were waiting for
this moment to violate the rights of
Canadian workers
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• It is not the place for the government to
dictate changes to agreements that are
collectively reached between employer
and employees
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• This speaks to changes being made to the
law – the Canada Post Corporation Act –
which governs all aspects of the mail
system, which includes things like security
of the mail, delivery standards, and prices
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• The rights and responsibilities of the union
are decided by the members of that union
While Canada Post has been claiming it's financially destitute, the valuation of the company has increased by the same value of its so-called losses. This is because Canada Post has been investing internally through purchases of real-estate, equipment, vehicles, and other goods.
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The kicker is that they don't really want your input. In 2016, there was a postal review by the Canadian government that took the better part of 2-years. The public was engaged in that review and the government heard that Canadians value their post office. They value the essential organization that delivers to all Canadians and maintains a network of communication and services everywhere.
Hands off my post office!