Canada Post workers launch rotating strikes beginning in Winnipeg
Posted Jun 3, 2011 05:28:36 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Mail carriers across Nova Scotia are delivering the mail today even as their colleagues in Winnipeg are walking the picket line.
The job action in Winnipeg is the first of a series of planned 24-hour strikes that will rotate through other Canadian cities – unless a deal can be reached in talks today.
The national director for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Atlantic region says that if today’s negotiations go well, job action may not happen in Nova Scotia at all.
“That is a possibility,” Jeff Callahan told News 95.7, Friday. “There hope, that the parties will be able to come together and have collective agreement. Right now the situation only affects people in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and there is no strike action for at least today, for Nova Scotia.”
CUPW’s national president is expected to hold a press conference to explain why job action is happening in only one city in Canada and what the plan is if talks fall through.
The vice-president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers in Winnipeg said rotating strikes are a useful tactic for getting the employer’s attention.
“If they don’t know what city it’s coming to next, there’s not that preparation for them,” Lisa Peterson told the Canadian Press. “It often does bring a bit more attention on our discussions and brings it back to negotiations with their being an intensity of what will happen next.”
The union said there has been little progress during months of negotiation while Canada Post said it has made many concessions.
A Canada Post official said both sides need to continue to focus on reaching a contract.
“We’d like the union to respond to our offer which should form the basis of a settlement,” said Jon Hamilton. “Therefore, be in a position to stop disrupting service to our customers, who depend on Canada Post, and move forward and really grow this business.”
The union is expected to issue a response at a news conference in Ottawa this morning.
Sick leave and wages are among the sticking issues in the labour dispute.
