DHL Express Canada has reached a tentative labour agreement with the Unifor union to prevent astrike that was threatened for yesterday (December 5) after a long-running pay dispute.
The details of the deal, which came after months of intensive negotiations that started in May,have not been disclosed.
Greg Hewitt, President, DHL Express Canada, said: “Following productive discussions with UNIFORrepresentatives, we are pleased to have reached a tentative deal which they have agreed torecommend to our dedicated workforce. This will allow us to continue to support our customers withthe service excellence that they have come to expect, especially during this busy holidayseason.”
At the beginning of this week, the Unifor union served 72-hour notice of legal strike action onbehalf of its members working at DHL Express Canada and warned that it would start industrialaction ‘if a fair agreement is not reached by December 5, 2013’.
The strike notice came after DHL Express workers who are members of Unifor voted by 98% infavour of strike action if necessary in a dispute over a new collective agreement.
Unifor represents 645 DHL workers across Canada in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan,Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia. As Canada’s largest union in the private sector, the union hassome 300,000 members in total in a broad range of industries. It was founded with the merger of theCanadian Auto Workers union (CAW) and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada(CEP) in August this year.
