------------ 1。加拿大郵局從6月14日起關門歇業locked- out，但勞資雙方有言在先：全國性的退休金（Canada Pension Plan）、老人年金（Old Age Security）、退伍軍人年金 (Veterans Affairs Pension Plan) 、俗稱牛奶金的加拿大兒童稅務優惠 (Canada Child Tax Benefit) 、卑詩家庭津貼 ( British Columbia Family Bonus) 及保障收入津貼 (Guaranteed Income Supplement) 等支票派送服務仍於6月20日如期遞送，郵政工會仍遵守承諾，派送200萬張以上的支票。但是，對於各省的就業保險金（Employment Insurance）、統一銷售稅（HST）退款、以及個人或企業退稅支票(Tax refund or rebates for individuals and business)則不在派送範圍內。各省對以支票方式領取收入補助的民眾，可親赴省府駐各地辦事處或服務處自取支票。
2。哈珀的聯邦政府6月20日提出強製郵政工人複工的法案，法案中包含了薪資條款，建議在2011年加薪1.75%，2012年加1.5%，2013和2014年均加2%。郵政工人工會Canadian Union of Postal Workers對此表示不滿：政府的加薪幅度比資方加拿大郵務公司Canada Post的還低，郵局的方案是在2011、2012和2013年分別加薪1.9%，2014年加薪2%。
OTTAWA — The federal NDP has said they are ready to use every trick in the book to delay passing back-to-work legislation, and help ensure locked-out Canada Post employees have as much time as possible to negotiate a settlement with their managers.
The Conservatives, who introduced the bill Monday, won't back down from a lengthy battle, but are working to have it passed as quickly as possible.
"We will continue sitting . . . until we finally dispose of the back-to-work legislation," Conservative House leader Peter Van Loan said Wednesday. "If everybody wants to co-operate, we could finish as early as Thursday or early into Friday. If the other parties are determined to prolong this matter, we could be sitting through the weekend."
Canada Post locked its employees out June 14, after 12 days of rotating strikes by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
Less than one week later, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt tabled Bill C-6, which would force the employees back to work at lower wages than a proposed settlement the Crown corporation had put on the table.
Opposition MPs have condemned the wage reductions specifically and the bill as a whole, saying it undermines the right to collective bargaining.
Before debate on the bill resumes in the House of Commons Thursday, there will be some procedural bits and pieces to get through.
For example, MPs will decide on the parameters determining how the bill will be passed — how many times it has to be read, whether it has to go to committee, and the intention to not stop debate until the bill is voted on.
But before that discussion even begins, Van Loan is expected to introduce a motion that will forcibly curtail debate on those parameters — an action known as known as closure.
Then once the debate moves on to the bill itself, there's no saying how long that will take, even though the House was scheduled to begin the summer break Thursday.
The longer the debate goes, the more time Canada Post employees and managers have reach a settlement on their own terms — a "fundamental right" the workers are being denied with this legislation, NDP members say.
"We intend to fight the legislation every step of the way, using all procedural manoeuvres that are possible in the House of Commons," said NDP leader Jack Layton.
Neither Layton nor the party whip, Chris Charlton, offered details on which manoeuvres the party plans to pull out in a potential filibuster.
"Well, as you can imagine, we're not going to disclose our parliamentary strategy before we're actually implementing it . . . At this point, I just don't feel comfortable disclosing where we're heading," Charlton said. "We're going to do everything we can to make sure that that legislation doesn't pass."
One tactic MPs have used in the past — a process that took more than 40 hours — was to introduce and vote on hundreds of amendments.
If the House passes the bill before Canada Post reaches an agreement with the union, the bill will be handed to the Senate, for further debate. If the Red Chamber also passes the legislation, the last step is for the Governor General to give his stamp of approval.
Conservative Senator Claude Carignan, deputy leader of the government in the Senate, said the Senate is prepared to sit "as long as it takes to pass the government's agenda."
Walkom: Everyone wins with back-to-work bill, except Canada Post workers
By Thomas Walkom, National Affairs Columnist
The politics around the postal and Air Canada labour disputes are complicated. Yes, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has no love for unions. Yes, too, the government’s bill ordering locked-out postal employees back to work is biased — even insisting on a wage settlement lower than what Canada Post was prepared to offer.
But the Conservatives’ uncompromising stance is not unique. During their times in government, neither the Liberals nor the New Democrats have been loath to use the legislative hammer against striking or locked-out workers.
In 1997, the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien ended a two-week postal dispute by imposing a wage settlement that, like Harper’s today, was lower than the one Canada Post was prepared to offer.
Oddly enough, it was the Reform Party — precursor to Harper’s Conservatives — who complained that this was unfair.
And the New Democrats? This time, they are up in arms. Party leader Jack Layton has attacked the back-to-work legislation as a fundamental assault on the rights of workers.
Well, yes. But in the past, federal New Democrats have been willing to speed back-to-work legislation through the Commons, as they did in 1991, when a grain handlers’ strike threatened the interests of Western farmers.
In 1997, the NDP allowed back-to-work legislation ending that year’s postal strike, including the kind of imposed wage settlement it now calls unjust, to zip through Parliament in return for changes to other aspects of the bill.
Nor have provincial NDP governments been shy to impose back-to-work laws.
In the 1970s and early ’80s, Saskatchewan premier Allan Blakeney legislated an end to labour disputes involving power workers, dairy workers and non-medical hospital personnel.
In Ontario, Bob Rae’s NDP government of the early ’90s famously trampled over the union rights of about 1 million public sector workers through legislation that unilaterally altered their existing contracts.
Now federal Liberal leader, Rae has hinted his party might join the NDP in trying to delay the government’s back-to-work bill.
However, the most curious aspect of Harper’s approach is not his decision to legislate an end to the 18-day postal dispute. Consecutive Liberal and Conservative governments have done that before, most recently in 1975, 1978, 1981, 1987 (twice) and 1997.
Nor is it the speed with which this legislation was introduced. Brian Mulroney’s Conservatives ended one 1987 postal strike after just nine days. In 1997, Chrétien’s Liberal government waited only two weeks before ordering postal employees back to work.
Rather it is Harper’s decision to intervene in the Air Canada strike just hours after it began. Air Canada is not an essential service. There are other airlines and other ways to get around.
More to the point, the strike called by the Canadian Auto Workers was shaping up to be a failure; the company kept flying with little or no service disruption.
Indeed, it’s arguable that by forcing a quick end to that strike, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt did the CAW a favour.
But that’s not how any of this will be played. Layton’s NDP has been accused of straying from its labour-friendly principles. It will find it useful to be seen acting firmly on the side of the unions — particularly in the context of a majority government where its opposition can make little practical difference.
The Liberals will be able to paint Harper’s actions as another example of his abuse of power — without having to dwell on their own view of postal workers.
And the Conservatives will be able to not only please their base but demonstrate to other public-sector employees that they can expect no mercy.
Everyone wins. Except, of course, the workers.
Thomas Walkom’s column appears Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday
------------ 1。加拿大郵局從6月14日起關門歇業locked- out，但勞資雙方有言在先：全國性的退休金（Canada Pension Plan）、老人年金（Old Age Security）、退伍軍人年金 (Veterans Affairs Pension Plan) 、俗稱牛奶金的加拿大兒童稅務優惠 (Canada Child Tax Benefit) 、卑詩家庭津貼 ( British Columbia Family Bonus) 及保障收入津貼 (Guaranteed Income Supplement) 等支票派送服務仍於6月20日如期遞送，郵政工會仍遵守承諾，派送200萬張以上的支票。但是，對於各省的就業保險金（Employment Insurance）、統一銷售稅（HST）退款、以及個人或企業退稅支票(Tax refund or rebates for individuals and business)則不在派送範圍內。各省對以支票方式領取收入補助的民眾，可親赴省府駐各地辦事處或服務處自取支票。
2。哈珀的聯邦政府6月20日提出強製郵政工人複工的法案，法案中包含了薪資條款，建議在2011年加薪1.75%，2012年加1.5%，2013和2014年均加2%。郵政工人工會Canadian Union of Postal Workers對此表示不滿：政府的加薪幅度比資方加拿大郵務公司Canada Post的還低，郵局的方案是在2011、2012和2013年分別加薪1.9%，2014年加薪2%。
