Canada Post rotating walkouts hit Lindsay, Bobcaygeon
Postal workers off the job in communities near Peterborough
LINDSAY — Canada Post workers took to the picket lines in Lindsay and Bobcaygeon on Wednesday as part of a nationwide rotating walkout agenda.
CUPW Local 564 president Karl Ward said that workers joined a picket line after learning the news at about 8:15 a.m. at the post offices on Cambridge Street in Lindsay and Bolton Street in Bobcaygeon; he was walking the line in Bobcaygeon.
In an interview late last month, Ward said he has no prior knowledge of when and where rotating Canada Post walkouts will occur. It is CUPW’s national headquarters who announces the dates and locations of labour disruptions.
On Wednesday, Ward said that he had "no idea" how long the walkout would last, and that he was "waiting to hear."
On the picket line in Lindsay, local vice president Cheryl MacMillan said they were advising customers that they would be closed for the day. Canada Post shares the Cambridge Street building with other tenants, so they were careful not to interfere in their businesses. However, drivers entering the rear lot on Canada Post business were being told they could be blocked on entry and exit for as long as 20 minutes.
CUPW represents more than 50,000 postal employees across Canada. The strike began on Oct. 23, rotating through several provinces across the country.
The union wants Canada Post to provide greater job security through the creation of more fulltime positions, arguing that temporary workers are consistently paid less, are not covered by health, dental and sick or disability insurance plans and have no guaranteed hours.
The Toronto Star reported Wednesday that the rotating strikes have hit the country’s largest processing centre in Toronto for a second time in three weeks, as workers in 11 other southern Ontario communities walked off the job just after midnight Tuesday.
Canada Post said in a statement that the union continues to escalate their strike activity, adding more communities each day and shutting down major processing centres for extended periods.
“Prior to the union’s decision to target Toronto again, the number of trailers full of parcels and packets waiting to be unloaded and processed at a Canada Post facilities sat at over 150,” Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton said in a statement late Tuesday.
“The escalating strikes have now shut down our three largest processing facilities in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal up to 48 hours. Combined, those three plants can process a million parcels and packets a day for communities across the country.”
The union and the postal service have been unable to reach new collective agreements for two bargaining units after ten months of negotiations.
“After ... the intervention of two mediators and two weeks of rotating strikes, Canada Post’s true colours are emerging,” Mike Palecek, CUPW national president, said in a statement Wednesday.