Ottawa wants postal talks to continue

Union rejects Canada Post’s proposal for ‘cooling-off’ period

OTTAWA — The federal government signalled Monday that it was willing to give Canada Post a couple more days to settle a labour dispute with its employees, despite pressure from business to end rotating strikes that have caused a month-long backlog of undelivered parcels and mail.

As Canada Post emerged from a weekend stalemate with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers over its latest contract offers, the Crown corporation issued another proposal: It would agree to mediation with the union, but only if its striking workers ended their walkouts during a “coolingoff” period, to end Jan. 31.

It also called for binding arbitration if no settlement is reached by the end of January.

Within minutes of CUPW’s rejection of that proposal, Labour Minister Patty Hajdu renewed her call for the two sides to continue bargaining, but she did not respond directly to reporters’ questions about back-to-work legislation.

“We’ve encouraged (both sides) to work together, we’ve appointed special mediators,” Hajdu said on her way into the House of Commons. “They are not open to voluntary arbitration, so we’re reviewing the evidence right now and we’ll have more to say in the days to come.”

Soon afterward, Canada Post said it had amended its proposal, dropping the notion of binding arbitration.

In an earlier statement, CUPW national president Mike Palecek said the union wasn’t holding rotating strikes to harm the public.

But he said he would not ask his members to return to work under conditions that effectively have some employees working without compensation.

“The proposal asks our members to go back to work at the heaviest and most stressful time of year, under the same conditions that produce the highest injury rate in the federal sector,” Palecek said in a statement. “It asks women to continue to do work for free. How can we do that?”

Canada Post proposed the cooling-off period as pressure mounted to resolve the ongoing labour dispute ahead of the busy Christmas delivery season.

In a statement, Canada Post said it wanted CUPW members to put down their picket signs while talks are on, and offered a special payment of up to $1,000 for each member if the union agreed.

The Canada Post proposal came as its workers continued their rotating strikes on Monday after rejecting the Crown agency’s latest offer. The union had let pass a time-sensitive proposal from Canada Post meant to stop the strikes, which affect about 42,000 urban employees and 8,000 rural and suburban carriers.