TORONTO—Unifor Members at DHL Express Canada have ratified a new four-year agreement by 72%, officially ending a lockout and strike lasting nearly three weeks in locations across the country.
“I am so proud of all the members of the national bargaining committee for standing strong and fighting for the respect they deserved,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne.
“This is a historic dispute in our union’s books because we were the test case for the new anti-scab legislation and our union and members stood tall, held strong, and the end result is we got a fair collective agreement.”
DHL workers will return to work after the ratification, however, there is no definite timeline. The union thanks the public for its patience as our members resolve the backlog of packages and deliveries.
The new contract features a 15.75% increase in wages throughout the life of the contract, a new payment structure for owner-operators, pension increases for hourly workers and a new pension for owner-operators.
In addition, there are increases to short and long-term disability payments, new mental health benefit, increases to severance, wage adjustments and much-desired language around AI, robotics and automatic, and improved work-from-home language.
Unifor members at DHL Express Canada were locked out after midnight on June 8 and subsequently went on strike hours later.
This dispute underscored the importance of federal anti-scab legislation, hard fought for by Unifor, which came into effect during this dispute.
It marked a historic moment for Unifor as this dispute became the first test case under the new law, with our members standing firm to ensure companies were not above it.
“This was a critical moment for the labour movement across Canada. The determination of our members in Quebec and across the country has sent a clear message: the anti-scab law must be respected, and workers will no longer tolerate being sidelined,” said Unifor Quebec Director Daniel Cloutier.
Unifor represents over 2,100 DHL Express Canada workers who as truck drivers, couriers, warehouse and clerical workers across Canada, at Locals 114 in British Columbia, 700 in Quebec, 755 in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 4005 in Nova Scotia, 4457 in Ontario and members in DHL Alberta.