The work stoppage would cause disruption in mail service for Saskatchewan residents and businesses, but some don’t seem to care.
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The union and Canada Post both say the number one sticking point in negotiations involves changes to employee pension plans.
Canada Post employees have no plan to strike before July 6th.
The Crown corporation says almost all of their largest e-commerce customers have already moved most or all of their parcel volumes to other carriers, resulting in a volume decline of at least 75 per cent from those customers. Finally, there has been such a large decline in parcels that “there are often not enough parcels to last an entire processing shift”‘. There is no need to demand sweeping concessions from Canada Post workers. Other items will be cancelled in line with the statutory minimum conditions set out in the labour code.
Canada Post said that it issued the lockout notice because its customers are already starting to flee the business due to the labour unrest.
The move was expected after the corporation said Monday that its June 25 offer, rejected by the union, was fair and reasonable.
“We believe they are creating a crisis”, Palecek said.
However, Canada Post may also have given notice of a lockout as a way to “provoke” the union to strike, Richmond said. “They refused to negotiate fairly with us and now they’ re locking the doors and will try to starve us into submission”. That means that postal workers could be locked out by Friday if negotiations with the union do not improve.
“Canada Post tabled offers Friday and Saturday, which the Crown corporation said “included modest and manageable wage increases for all employees and no changes to the pension for all employees in the plan”, but” required a new pension approach for new hires”.
“They don’t really want to give us a chance to settle a deal”.
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We want to reassure the public and the business community that we intend to remain in talks as long as there is hope that the parties offer suggestions on how we can better serve Canadians. Mail will be collected, stored and will be delivered when employees go back to work.
