Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) in Trail, Castlegar, and Rossland have joined the picket lines again as rotating strikes continue across Canada.
Columbia River Local President Luc Julien says the government has responded to the request to reappoint a mediator, but at the same have removed the incentive for Canada Post to get serious at the table.
Julien adds, “[Canada Post] has stalled for nearly a year to bring the dispute to this busy time of year, so they have the excuse of mail backlogs to ask the Trudeau government to intervene.”
He says they won’t address the main issues of injury reduction, staffing levels, chronic overtime, and paying rural and suburban carriers for the hours they work and rejected the latest counter offer to resolve negotiations.
In Ottawa, MPs are debating on fast tracking a motion to force mail carriers back to work. The back-to-work legislation has been tabled and the Liberals want to get the bill passed quickly to get postal service back in motion, but reports suggest the NDP might hold that up.
The feds are also urging Canada Post and the workers’ union to reach a deal quickly.
According to Canada Post, the strikes are into their fifth week and have touched virtually every Canada Post facility and every Canadian address.
Commercial customers have been advised that Canada Post is not able to honour its delivery standards for any product because of the strikes, which they say have created backlogs of mail and parcels already, just days before millions more parcels from Black Friday and Cyber Monday online sales are expected.
Canada Post expects the worst delays for mail and parcels will be for items that originate or are destined for southern and southwestern Ontario.
