Fairly early on in this process, the parties were able to negotiate and sign language giving the Union access to the information that Canada Post uses to restructure letter carrier and RSMC routes. To many of you this may not appear to be related to overburdening, but it is one of the keys that will allow us to fully investigate how the data is used to restructure our routes.
What Did We Get Access To?
We have achieved better access to CPC data and software since 2008 when the GeoRoute software was introduced. The Georoute software is used to structure all Urban routes and many RSMC routes, especially in suburban areas. GeoRoute has always been a big concern because everything is hidden in the background and we had no specific information about how Georoute was manipulating data. Now we have the capability to look into this software and see how it uses this data.
CPC will provide the Union with 18 laptops and access to most of the software programs and data used by GeoRoute software. The list of information that we now have access to is extensive and includes; the PCI index for Urban, the RSMC Route Management System (RMS), the Address Information Management (AIM) and the Neighbourhood Mail database for Urban.
National Oversight Committees
There are two National Oversight Committees, one RSMC and one Urban. The role of these Oversight Committees is to assist the parties to; understand the information, provide training and resolve disputes related to this information.
Local Observers – Urban
The union observers for letter carrier restructures, will now have access to more information that will allow them to better analyze the routes that are being built. Much of this information will now be available in an electronic format which should make it easier to verify.
RSMC Restructures
One of our demands this round was to get union observers for RSMC restructures. Unfortunately, we were not successful this time. This new information that we are now receiving should make it easier to verify RSMC routes that are being built.
One Piece of the Puzzle
Access to information is just one piece of the puzzle that we are putting together to improve our ability to ensure that Canada Post is building RSMC and letter carrier routes correctly and safely. The goal of getting this information is to ensure that the routes are assessed as accurately as possible and to reflect the actual workload as much as possible.
In addition to access to information, we also have the Work Content Committee for RSMCs and the Mail Volume Updates for letter carriers. Combined, these changes should assist us in reducing overburdening. This new information will give us a better understanding of the CPC systems and data so that we can make more positive changes in the future.
In Solidarity,
Martin Champagne
4th National Vice-President