Canada Post has rejected the Canadian Union of Postal Workers’ request to send their contract dispute to binding arbitration.
The union’s 55-thousand workers (including about 200 in the PG area) have been in a legal strike position for ten days but, so far, have only instituted a ban on overtime.
The corporation says the arbitration process could take as long as a year adding to its already-precarious financial position.
Local CUPW 812 President, Nicole Chouinard told Vista Radio the company’s decision was disappointing but not unexpected.
“Binding arbitration would have put us in a position to have something that the members could support. At the end of the day, Canada Post tried to force a vote on a global offer that the union would not put to its members because it is not ratifiable.”
“For both sides to be negotiating in good faith, you need to have incentive for that to be happening and that incentive isn’t there for Canada Post because regardless of what we try to choose to do as a union to expedite negotiations – if Canada Post gets the federal government to come in on a whim, what recourse do we have?
“It’s very frustrating,” added Chouinard.
Canada Post presented what it called its “final offers” to the union on Wednesday of last week.
Meanwhile, Canada Post employees staged rallies in 13 cities across the country on Saturday (including Prince George) in an attempt to stir up support in their labour dispute with the crown corporation.
“The thing about our job is that unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation about Canada Post in general. Most people forget that we are a public service and we are not here to make profit.”
– with files from Vista Radio newswire