Mood:  caffeinated

Before Canada Post became a "Crown Corporation", a business owned by the Canadian Government, there were many things that couldn't be negotiated between the union and the Post Office. Things like severances, pensions and bonuses were "non-negotiable" since it was a government department.

Jean-Claude Parrot, former president of CUPW spearheaded a campaign to make "all issues negotiable" by making the Post Office into a public company, a crown corporation: Canada Post Corporation.

He did what he believed in and while negotiations were often acrimonious and long, he did make breakthroughs with maternity rights for women, seniority rights for casuals and full job security for all posties.

It was management that was often unwilling to negotiate but never him.

This attitude of "negotiate and keep negotiating" doesn't seem to have survived with the present CUPW team.

Without researching the pros and cons from other unions or lawyers on Canada Post's "Corporate Team Incentive Program," the negotiating committee gave it the big "heave ho" on first examination.

In a sentence, "they refused to negotiate on it". The executive committee appeared to want a fast track to a contract at the expense of full and complete negotiations. They seemed to be looking for easy trade-offs rather than something that required study and work.

I'm retiring soon so I'm not going to worry about a "quick fix solution".

http://www.socialistaction.org/koch2.htm (More On Jean-Claude Parrot)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Post (History Of Canada Post)