Postal Workers Walk off The Job In Four Cities
Rotating walkouts will last 24-hours in each location.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) chose Victoria, Edmonton, Windsor, and Halifax for its first series of rotating walkouts which began at 12:01 today.
“Canada Post had the opportunity this weekend to stop any postal disruption on Monday, but instead, as they have for almost a year, they refused to talk about the issues that matter to our members,” says Mike Palecek, CUPW National President. “Our goal has always been a negotiated settlement but we will not agree to anything that doesn’t address health and safety, gender equality and good, full-time middle-class jobs.”
CUPW says job actions will continue until “Canada Post gets serious about bargaining. They should and can do better. Our members deserve better.”
Negotiations have been ongoing for almost a year. Key demands for postal workers during this round of bargaining are job security, an end to forced overtime and overburdening, better health and safety measures, service expansion and equality for Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers.
Canada Post says it remains committed to the bargaining process and has a significant offer on the table that includes increased wages, job security, improved benefits and contains no concessions. In addition, management says it has offered to work together constructively to find solutions to employee workload concerns caused by parcel growth, additional financial services and going beyond pay equity for Rural and Suburban employees by extending job security and moving to one uniform.
CUPW opted for rotating strikes to minimize the impact of a postal disruption on customers.
While mail and parcels will not be delivered or picked up in the affected cities Canada Post says it will be accepting and delivering mail and parcels in all other locations.
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