Anyone with letters or packages they've been meaning to send will want to rush to the post office, as a looming postal disruption draws closer.
After seven months of negotiations, Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) are no closer to coming to an agreement for urban postal workers, and rural and suburban mail carriers (RSMC). June 10 marked the end of conciliation, sending the two sides into a mandatory 21-day “cooling off” period.
Come July 2 at exactly 12:01 a.m., CUPW obtains the right to strike and Canada Post the right to impose a lockout.
“We're looking to get a deal done before the end of June. I won't speculate but at this point we want to make sure customers are informed so they can prepare accordingly,” said Mouktar Abdillahi, spokesperson for Canada Post.
He added, “What we're looking for is essentially three things: a deal that's fair to our employees, that is affordable to the corporation so that it can be sustained, and a deal that doesn't burden the customers.”
Five years ago, in June 2011, inconclusive negotiations resulted in Canada Post locking out thousands of unionized employees across Canada after members of CUPW conducted a series of rotating strikes across the country.
Despite being in a “cooling off” period, negotiations are still ongoing. While both sides maintain they want to come to an agreement before the end of the month, CUPW national president Mike Palecek said they're still “miles apart”.
Palecek goes as far to accuse Canada Post of intentionally planning for a lockout.
“Every indication is that Canada Post is intending to lock us out on or shortly after July 2. They have very clearly been making preparations to lockout their workers. That's taken the form of telling all of their biggest mailers that they expect the post office to shut down and they shouldn't mail anything.”
One of the major issues the union has brought to the table is addressing pay equality between rural and urban mail carriers. According to Palecek, the RMSC, which is about 70 per cent women, makes 28 per cent less than the urban letter carriers, which has predominately male employees.
The other issue CUPW would like discussed is for Canada Post to address the future of the service.
“We want to look at services that Canada Post could and should be providing across this country. Services that are needed by the public and would bring in revenue to Canada Post,” said Palecek.
Abdillahi, on the other hand, said one of the proposals raised by Canada Post is how to update the existing service. How they're hoping to do that is by introducing weekend delivery to correspond with the growing popularity of internet shopping.
“Canadians are shopping 24/7, but we're structured for delivery Monday to Friday and weekends are double time. What we're looking to do is introduce more flexibility as a corporation so that we can respond better to the changing needs of Canadians.”
If there's one thing both sides can agree upon, it's that they're still a long way from reaching an agreement as a possible July 2 postal disruption draws nearer.
The Bonnyville Post Office is comprised of both union and non-union members. Should there be a postal disruption, the post office would remain open but mail wouldn't be delivered. However, the regional manager for the Bonnyville office was unavailable for comment by press time.
There is still time to get mail sent to ensure delivery even if there is a postal disruption. Machinable personalized mail (mail that can be automatically sorted), lettermail, and local neighbourhood mail must be sent by June 23. The deadlines for parcels are: regional regular parcels – June 22, local regular parcels or regional expedited parcels – June 27, national expedited parcels – June 21, national and regional Xpresspost – June 28, and local expedited parcels, local Xpresspost, or all priority mail – June 29.
Your local newspaper, the Bonnyville Nouvelle, will be available for pick-up at our office located at 5304 50 Ave. Bonnyville.
