Canada Post & CUP-W agree to extend talks in postal dispute

Contract talks will continue between Canada Post and the CUPW with the help of a government-appointed mediator.

“Despite our best efforts and the assistance of the two mediators, we have not yet managed to achieve agreements in principle for either bargaining unit”.

In a statement today the union says barring a breakthrough, posties in Alberta and the Northwest Territories will refuse to work overtime tomorrow. This means all job action is postponed until 00:01AM on Tuesday, August 30.

As negotiations continue between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the strike action that was to start from midnight on Sunday has been put on hold for 24 hours.

The union wants to assure the overtime ban won’t affect their mail delivery.

“We simply want to draw attention to our negotiation issues by asking our full-time members across the country to work only their scheduled hours”.

“The sad problem here is, if the post office is going to go on strike, I don’t think people will be very much inconvenienced, and they won’t be missed as much as maybe they were once”. Postal workers can be forced back and severely disciplined for refusing overtime.

A CUPW news release says the initial job action will cause little disruption to Canada Post customers and that its members will still be delivering mail every day.

But NDP Canada Post critic Karine Trudel called the push for legislation “troubling”, warning that it would “only serve to stack the deck against workers and prolong the dispute, not resolve it”.

The union plans to alternate its overtime ban between different provinces and territories each day.