With apologies to Dickens, we'll call this column the tale of two unions; the first, Air Canada's CAW which represents customer sales and service agents; the second, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
Both have been in the news and both caught the attention of Stephen Harper's fiscally conservative and tightly buttoned-down majority government. The contentious issues were also similar, pension plans in both cases and entry level wages at Canada Post. Ditto for the government's response; the threat of back-to-work legislation.
Both unions are also a classic study of how to manage a fight you can't win. In the dispute at Air Canada, the CAW made the right decision with a large dose of modern-day common sense winning out over bluster. This was not the case with the CUPW who skilfully turned its only slightly tarnished reputation into a public relations mess.
It's no secret both unions have seen dramatic changes in technology impact their operational structures and importance.
First, let's take a look at the CAW and the ever-changing airline industry. By way of a local example, in the mid 1960s, Canadian Pacific - at that time the only major local air carrier - employed 11 people at its Prince George reservations office, two more at the downtown ticket office and about 20 plus at the airport.
Today, there are two major airlines operating out of the Prince George Airport - West Jet and Air Canada Express - with more than double the passenger loads of the 1960s. Yet neither have a locally based reservations or ticket office and together they wouldn't employ anywhere near the number of Prince George-based agents Canadian Pacific did in the 1960s.
Reservations, seat selection, baggage check and boarding passes are now all as close as your home computer. Book on-line, check-in on-line, show up at the airport, put your bags on the scale and get on the airplane. It's fast and efficient. Nowadays you and your computer along with a highly automated reservations system do the lion's share of the work in getting you to your destination. Needless to say, the airline's need for skilled ground personnel has diminished considerably in the past 45 years.
That was never more apparent than during the recent three-day strike by Air Canada agents when management forces were able to keep the airline flying without a hitch in service. As a side bar, Air Canada Express, which serves Prince George, is a separate company and was not affected by the Air Canada labour dispute.
Today's technology has also dramatically changed the way we communicate. Mail no longer dominates. I'll bet there are millions of Canadians under the age of 20 who have never mailed a letter and probably never will. Canada Post reports annual decreases in mail volume and revenue. No surprise considering the massive increase in social networking, inexpensive long-distance phone plans, on-line transactions and the growth of private-sector couriers.
In spite of this, Canada Post's union, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, began a series of rotating strikes in opposition to the company offer of lower entry-level wages for new hires and a change in pension benefits. Postal workers would have to work to age 60, instead of 55 to receive full pension benefits. Canada Post also wanted to end the practice of banking sick-leave days.
The postal union pushed back, saying the company's offer was unacceptable and instead asked Canada Post to increase its employee base by starting a banking branch; getting rid of super mailboxes as well as allowing letter carriers to check up on the elderly along their routes.
As the Canada Post/CUPW dispute dragged on, the company imposed a lockout. Next came back-to-work legislation and for postal workers the reality of public-sector bargaining in a tough economy. The legislative hammer should have come as no surprise to the postal worker's union. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has been legislated back to work seven times since the 1970s, both by Liberal and Conservative governments.
And as we spring into the holiday season, the planes at Air Canada are happily on the wing and the mail is moving. However, that's where the similarity ends. Workers with Air Canada's CAW have accepted - by 87 per cent - a four-year agreement with two-per- cent increases for three years and three per cent for the final year. They have also agreed to less generous early retirement plan.
While over at Canada Post, the workers are legislated back to work. The government-imposed wage settlement is less than the employer had offered and other key issues will be decided by an arbitrator on a final-offer basis. By legislative mandate, the arbitrator must take into account the precarious financial viability of Canada Post and the solvency ratio of the CUPW pension plan.
So who won? We all did. The message, don't mess with reality.
