DHL Express Canada and the Unifor labor union have ratified a new four-year contract, enabling the company to resume operations across the country Monday.
After locking out its 2,100 union couriers, truck drivers and warehouse workers on June 8, the workers went on strike and began picketing the package delivery firm’s 18 facilities.
With the labor stoppage in effect, DHL began using replacement workers until the nationwide Bill C-58 “anti-scab” legislation went into effect on June 20. The courier shuttered service across Canada after the law’s implementation.
Related Stories
DHL Express Canada, whose 50,000 customers in Canada include Shein, Temu and Lululemon, lifted its service suspension two days upon union ratification of the agreement on late Saturday.
Voting on the tentative deal, which was struck on Wednesday, took place on Friday and Saturday. According to Unifor, 72 percent of voters agreed to ratify the agreement.
The new contract features a 15.75 percent 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, a new mental health benefit, increases to severance, wage adjustments and new contract language around AI, robotics and automation
A report from Canadian news publication The Globe and Mail said the agreement is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2025, and workers will also get a $500 lump sum bonus.
The agreement ends a negotiation period that started on Oct. 1 last year. The previous collective bargaining agreement expired on Dec. 31. That deal, which was active since January 2020, included an annual wage increase of 2.5 percent.
Unifor had demanded a 22 percent salary increase for hourly employees, as well as a 42 percent wage hike for owner-operators of trucks, over three years. DHL had most recently proposed a 15 percent wage boost over five years for hourly workers.
Both sides had sparred beyond the hourly wage demands, namely with the method of compensation for truck drivers.
Unifor said that its members sometimes had to drive up to 100 kilometers to get to a meet-up point where they would pick up freight and then begin doing deliveries in an area. The drivers were not compensated for driving to that meet-up point.
Sivadas Santosh, the lead negotiator for Unifor, told The Globe and Mail that the new agreement addresses the issue by ensuring the union has a say in the distance each driver has to drive to get to a meet-up point.
Once the lockout occurred, the bickering shifted to the use of replacement workers, and a debate over whether DHL Express performed essential services required to necessitate an exemption to Bill C-58.
The company had asked Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Canadian government for an exemption to the law, citing that a DHL shutdown would pose risks to the country’s supply chain, reduced availability of goods and increased consumer prices.
Unifor had fired back that DHL is not one of the top four express package delivery companies in Canada, and that DHL workers represent fewer than 0.7 percent of all local delivery workers and less than 15 percent of all courier workers in the country.
On Tuesday, Unifor filed a formal complaint with the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) alleging “blatant” violations of the new federal legislation. The union claimed it submitted evidence including images of busloads of replacement workers at DHL’s facilities near Hamilton airport, as well as online package tracking data that indicates the continued use of third-party contractors after the June 20 implementation.
If DHL were to bring on replacement workers with the new law in effect, it would pay a daily fine of up to $100,000 Canadian dollars ($73,167) per day.
With the DHL ratification vote concluded, Canada’s other parcel shipping labor dispute continues to await the date for a government-mandated union vote on final contract offers from Canada Post.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) have urged members to vote “no” on two separate contract offers for its urban unit and rural and suburban segment.
The 55,000 workers impacted by the labor negotiations have not imposed strike action. They have instead instituted an overtime ban.
On Thursday, the union shared concerns that robotics, automation and artificial intelligence “pose a direct threat” to the job security of urban postal workers.
Last month, Canada Post said it would deploy two small packet sorter robots in an induction platform at the courier’s Gateway facility in Toronto.
“The result will be job loss for postal clerks,” said CUPW national president Jan Simpson. “Maintenance workers will also be impacted. Minor repairs and maintenance will be handled on-site by CUPW employees, but more intensive breakdowns, preventative maintenance and other activities will be handled by a subsidiary of the vendor if needed.”
