Canada Post strike looms as cooling-off period ends Saturday

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers and Canada Post are currently in a 21-day cooling-off period that ends Saturday.

This would mean the union would be in a legal strike position as of Sunday if there is 72 hours notice given.

Canada Post presented its latest contract offer to the union Tuesday. The union says the offers total close to 500 pages in both official languages.

The new proposal includes annual wage increases amounting to 11.5 per cent over four years, continued wage protection against unforeseen inflation as well as job security and health benefits.

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Canada’s national postal service also proposed to submit several items to binding-interest arbitration in a news release.

“The proposal would allow a neutral third party to decide a reasonable path forward on key items that are important to both sides,” reads the release.

The corporation told CHCH News that they are currently focusing on negotiating new collective agreements. “Both parties remain at the table and we have not received a notice of strike from the union,” they said.

The global offer “falls short”

The union’s national president Jan Simpson responded in a media release saying the global offer falls short and teams have been reviewing the offer, but no details have been given just yet.

Simpson says after reviewing the details of the latest offer, “it’s evident that Canada Post is focused on pushing many of their issues to binding arbitration.”

“This approach would delay the finalization of a complete collective agreement and redirect funds toward lawyers and arbitrators rather than investing directly in you,” she said.

The two largest bargaining units have been negotiating contracts for almost a year, including the urban operations unit and rural and suburban mail carriers.

The rural and suburban units would likely be affected the most when it comes to mail delivery.

The union also announced earlier this week that its members voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action if a deal could not be reached at the bargaining table.

Canada Post says a labour disruption would not only have significant consequences for its customers, but it would also deepen the company’s concerning financial situation.

The crown corporation says they lost $490 million in the first six months of this year.

The last time Canada Post workers went on strike was back in October 2018 which led to delays of packages and mail.

At that time, the federal government stepped in to end the month-long rotating strikes across the country.

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