OTTAWA—The ongoing saga of labour negotiations between CUPW, the union representing urban and rural mail delivery workers continues, with the union having issued a 72-hour strike notice and a complaint to the Industrial Relations Board regarding Canada Post’s attempt to circumvent the union’s role in negotiations in asking the Minister of Jobs and Families for the Canada Industrial Relations Board to administer a directed employee vote.
The Crown corporation has rejected the union’s call to enter binding arbitration—claiming that process will rob union members of having a voice in the negotiations (oddly, a role that unions perform in the collective bargaining process).
The union’s complaint to the Industrial Relations Board focusses on Canada Post’s messages to union members.
Despite all this, both sides have been exchanging proposals for a potential arbitration process.
According to CUPW, the terms of reference for arbitration exchanged through federal mediators include issues the parties could bring to arbitration, criteria that would help guide the arbitrator in making a decision and timelines for when a final decision would have to be made.
In the meantime, the country sits with bated breath to see if the union and company can come to a successful conclusion of their negotiations.
The situation facing Canada Post is dire, with deficits in the hundreds of millions dollars not looking to abate. The issues tend to be more in the realm of worker status and continued daily door-to-door letter delivery—a process that the company (with the backing of a report from the Industrial Relations Board) says is unsustainable in its present form.
Stay tuned.