Mail service may be seriously impaired across Canada by the end of this week.
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A 72-hour notice has been issued a to the union, although Canada post states this does not mean they will be closed on Friday.
Rather, it said, the measure would allow it to “take measures that are necessary to respond to the changing business reality”.
The CUPW says Canada Post is using the lockout notice to drive workers “out onto the streets without pay in an effort to impose steep concessions on them”. “Canada Post has been out in the media for weeks saying there’s going to be an interruption and now they’re complaining there’s no mail or parcels in the system”, he told the CBC’s Metro Morning radio show.
The corporation blames prolonged negotiations, the union’s strike mandate and the financial cost of a rapid decline in mail volume for the labour unrest.
Still, both sides say they are hopeful a deal can be reached before Friday.
CFIB issued a letter to Canada Post president and CEO Deepak Chopra last week, calling for a settlement, but stressing that unfunded liabilities in Canada Post’s pension plan are not a trivial issue, with a $6.2 billion solvency deficit.
“We knew this was their game all along”. He said that rural and suburban mail carriers, who are mostly women, make 28 per cent less than their urban, mostly male counterparts. They also say that CUPW’s demands of more than $1 billion were unaffordable and therefore rejected those demands.
“I’m not sure what Canada Post is thinking”.
Urban workers get paid for an eight-hour workday, while rural and suburban carriers are compensated through what he called a “variable pay-based model”, which means compensation depends on the mail carrier’s route.
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The Crown corporation and its union have agreed to keep delivering social benefits like old age security, Canada Pension Plan, the working income tax benefit, and the Liberals’ vaunted new Canada Child Benefit, which is set to be delivered for the first time this month. Canada Post wants to change the pension plan for newly hired workers to a defined contribution plan, different from the current one defined benefit plan which guarantees a reliable payout every month.
