Ottawa prepared to end mail strike

The federal government has given notice that they’re prepared to legislate Canada Post employees back to work as the postal service and union spar over the scale of the backlog the rotating strikes have created.

Labour Minister Patty Hajdu said that 48 hours notice is required before introducing back-to-work legislation, but insisted that having done so doesn’t mean the government will make the move to end rotating strikes by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.

“We have complete flexibility about when we’ll introduce that legislation,” Hajdu told reporters before the Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday morning.

The potential of forcing postal employees back to work comes in the fifth week of rotating strikes by thousands of unionized workers as the union and postal service remain divided in contract negotiations.

Canada Post said Tuesday that Canadians can expect delays of parcel and mail delivery into 2019 as a result of the strikes, especially in southwestern Ontario because of a backlog of hundreds of transport trailers sitting idle at its main Toronto sorting facility.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has, however, challenged the claims of major backlogs, saying they have been highly exaggerated.

The union said Wednesday that it counted about 70 trailers at the main Toronto facility, which could be cleared in a matter of days, along with a smattering of trailers elsewhere in Ontario and on the East Coast.

“It would appear that they’re up to their same old game, which is to try to provoke back-to-work legislation,” said Mike Palecek, CUPW national president in an interview.

“This is what Canada Post does again and again and again. They create a crisis, in this case a fictional one, and then wait for the government to bail them out. So we’re incredibly concerned that the government may be moving forward with legislation based on information that isn’t true.”