The Canadian Press
OTTAWA—As the clock ticks down on the Canadian Union of Postal Workers’ strike mandate, contract talks with Canada Post are going nowhere fast.
Each side blames the other for the stalled negotiations.
The union fears the Crown corporation is trying to run out the clock on the union’s strike mandate, which expires Aug. 25.
But Canada Post said the union is insisting on $1 billion worth of demands that simply are not affordable.
Once the strike mandate expires, CUPW president Mike Palecek said Canada Post management unilaterally could impose changes in working conditions and the union would be unable to respond.
“We’re concerned Canada Post is just trying to wait us out,” Palecek said in an interview Tuesday.
“We obviously can’t leave ourselves in a position where we’re not covered by a strike mandate because that would give management the upper hand and we wouldn’t be able to respond to the actions that they might take,” he noted.
CUPW could take another strike vote but Palecek said that’s an expensive, time-consuming process and each strike mandate lasts only 60 days.
The union intends to propose solutions that would make it possible to continue talks without having to take perpetual strike votes.
“We want to keep negotiations going and we’re looking at ways that could happen,” Palecek said.
“Those discussions will happen at the bargaining table.
“We’ve said from the outset that our intent here isn’t a labour dispute,” he stressed.
“We want a negotiated collective agreement and that’s still our goal.”
Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton said expiry of the strike mandate shouldn’t be an issue if the union is sincere in wanting a negotiated deal.
The threat of a possible strike is hurting business as customers look for long-term certainty about the delivery of parcels and direct mail, he added.
“The union maintaining their strike mandate certainly doesn’t help provide the certainty they’re looking for,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton acknowledged the talks “have not made much progress” thus far.
He said Canada Post has offered modest wage increases and a proposal aimed at securing the long-term sustainability of the postal workers’ pension plan, whereby new hires would get a less-generous, defined contribution plan while existing workers keep their defined benefits plan.
But Hamilton noted CUPW has rejected the pension proposal, and has put “more than a billion dollars in demands on the table and that would certainly impact our ability to provide affordable service to Canadians.”
