Rotating postal strike rolled through rural Nova Scotia
Yarmouth was among the sites of rotating strikes in the province last week as the unionized Canada Post employees walked off the job last Thursday.
Employees walked off the job in Truro, New Glasgow, Pictou, Antigonish, Cape Breton, the Annapolis Valley, Bridgewater, Liverpool, Cumberland County and Yarmouth. Mail and parcels were not delivered while the employees picketed outside Canada Post locations in these communities.
Rotating strikes have been taking place across the country since October. CUPW, which represents 50,000 employees, began the rotating strike on Oct. 22, after negotiators between the union and Crown corporation failed to reach a deal. Workers have been without a contract for 11 months.
Among the unsettled items in the dispute is increased support for employees sustaining injuries. Increased workload and poorly determined routes are being blamed for an increase in injuries.
“Injuries across the country are higher than ever because of the overburdening,” said Yarmouth Local 138 Union representative Jeff Cook as he and other workers were off the job last week.
“Canada Post refuses to negotiate with us so we’ve had to go to rotating strikes. It still seems like they’re not willing to negotiate so we’re not sure what’s going to happen but we may have to force the issue more. Hopefully, not. Hopefully they’ll come to the table,” Cook said, adding workers also wanted to see pay equity, which, he said, “we haven’t seen a cent from.”
“They’ve been arbitrated to give us a bunch of things that were negotiated in our last round. We haven’t seen anything from that and we want to be treated equally like all the other employees,” Cook said. “We’re tired of being treated like second-class employees.” Nicola Boone, the president of Local 087 of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, outside the post office in New Glasgow, talked about the toll the job takes on the body as workers held a rotating strike there.
“Not just shin splints,” said Boone, who works as a mail carrier in New Glasgow. “When I go home at night, I’m crippled. We have to do our routes, but afterwards our life is pretty much miserable.”
Geoffrey Turner walks 25 kilometres per day on his postal routes in Kentville. He said new routes and added deliveries mean he’s walking a much longer distance than normal, and that most of his fellow letter carriers walk at least 20 kilometres.
Turner is the president of CUPW’s Annapolis Valley chapter, which received instructions to begin its strike rotation Nov. 8. He said the added pressure on Annapolis Valley workers – and others across the province – is not sustainable and must change.
“We want to make sure the post office is something that’s going to last and continue being strong for a long time. The way things are set up now – things have to change,” he said.
As mentioned, another sticking point in this labour dispute has been the issue of wage parity between urban letter carriers and their colleagues delivering mail in rural and suburban areas.
“They get paid less but they’re doing the same job,” said Boone back in New Glasgow.