DHL Express Canada stopped the delivery service throughout the country on Friday while workers continue to attack and the new federal legislation prohibiting replacement workers enters into force.
More than 2,000 DHL workers represented by Unifor, including trucks, mails and warehouse employees and call centers, have been on strike since June 8 after the German property delivery company blocked them after a breakdown in negotiations with the union.
DHL has tied the closure with the stagnant negotiations, as well as a new federal law that prohibits replacement workers to play the role of employees regulated by the federal government who are on strike or blocked.
Unifor has said that its negotiation priorities with DHL revolve around wages, working conditions and surveillance and automation in the workplace.
The Unifor representative, Balkar Bains, who was on the picket line in Brampton on Friday, said the new legislation has “trained the unions to have a fair negotiation.”
“Unfortunately, DHL doesn’t take that into account.”
DHL, whose 50,000 clients in Canada include Lululemon, Shein and Siemens, continued operations during the first dozens of work stoppage, but began to relax earlier this week as the legislation progressed.
The president of the Unifor, Lana Payne, says that the company had brought to replacement workers, a claim that DHL has not denied, to a extent that she says it was legal at that time, but undermined negotiations for fair wages.
Earlier this week, DHL wrote to Ottawa, asking the Federal Government to allow the company to continue operating despite the prohibition, arguing that the company offers an essential service.
In response, Unifor wrote to Prime Minister Mark Carney, asking that the federal government does not intervene, saying that it would eliminate the employer’s incentive to negotiate and resolve a fair contract.
DHL has not responded to the request for comments from CBC.
Unemployment that affects business, customers
The arrest of the DHL delivery occurs in a moment of agitation for the delivery of packages in Canada, since Canada Post disagrees with the union that represents 55,000 of its workers.
That, together with the current commercial war between the United States and Canada, has been expensive for Holly Rockbrune, owner of an antique store in Pickering, Ontario. She says that about 70 percent of her clients are Americans.
“We constantly have to update how we handle things,” said Rockbrune this week. “All these combined shipping problems really make things very difficult to manage a business.”
She says she has had to start using smaller private shipping companies that are sometimes twice as expensive than DHL to keep her customers.
“Our orders have fallen, our order numbers are low, the values are low,” he said.
The strike and closing of DHL have also caused problems to customers, such as Prateek Mahajan, who says that he and his fiancee were supposed to be delivered to his wedding clothes on Friday. I was in the company’s Brampton warehouse in the morning in the hope of having arrived, but says that DHL would not help him.
“It’s my wedding tomorrow morning,” he said. “They don’t entertain me at all. It’s horrible.”
