Purolator reaches labour deal with Teamsters Union

Canadian parcel delivery company Purolator has reached a “tentative” deal with the Teamsters Union on a new work contract for around 10,000 workers. Negotiations with the union’s leadership concluded with unanimous backing on Friday, the talks having started last August.

Details of the contract are being kept under wraps until the union’s membership votes on the measures, in a poll expected to take place over the next several weeks.

However, the Teamsters Union leadership insisted that they had won “significant gains”.

Gary Kitchen, director of Teamsters Canada’s package and parcel division, and chairman of the union’s negotiating committee, said: “I’m confident that the membership will ratify this tentative agreement once they hear the details of the settlement from their local union officers.”

In a brief statement, Purolator president and CEO Tom Schmitt said: “We are very pleased with the progress of contract negotiations and are looking forward to the ratification of an agreement between Purolator and our unionised teammates.”

Purolator, which has around 11,500 staff in all, is 90% owned by Canada Post, has been growing its profits through 2010 and the first half of 2011, despite troubles at its parent company related to the summer’s strikes and mail volume declines.

“We believe that workers are the cornerstone of the success of Purolator, and the tentative agreement demonstrates that,” said John McCann, President of Local Union 879.