The Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu is urging Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers to kickstart negotiations with mediators.

Hajdu is asking both parties to seek negotiating terms for an arbitration process and to have the union table its response to the last offer made by the corporation.

She added that while arbitration is not the preferred path to an agreement for either side, each will have priorities it wants recognized.

The union’s 55-thousand workers have been in a legal strike position for roughly two weeks but, so far, have only instituted a ban on overtime.

The corporation added the arbitration process could take as long as a year adding to its already-precarious financial position.