Write your MP: eBay

E-commerce giant wants end to labour dispute at Canada Post

OTTAWA — E-commerce giant eBay urged Canadian businesses on Monday to write to the prime minister and demand a legislated end to the labour dispute at Canada Post as a threatened work disruption was once again put on hold.

Launch of the letter-writing campaign came as contract negotiations between the Crown agency and its biggest union stretched into overtime, and was dismissed by the opposition New Democrats as interference in the collective bargaining process.

While government officials expressed optimism that a 24-hour extension of the talks would break a months-long impasse over pensions and wages, small and medium-sized businesses have heard it before, said eBay Canada managing director Andrea Stairs.

“Negotiations are ongoing, but we don’t see a solution coming down the pipe,” Stairs said in an interview.

“So we really felt it was time for the prime minister to get involved.”

But NDP Canada Post critic Karine Trudel called the push for legislation “troubling,” warning that it would “only serve to stack the deck against workers and prolong the dispute, not resolve it.”

The letter, emailed to eBay sellers and addressed to Justin Trudeau’s Langevin Block office in Ottawa, encourages the prime minister to “explore legislative solutions to the current situation” at Canada Post and warns that businesses

are being harmed by uncertainty about whether parcels will be delivered.

“EBay sellers, like other small and medium businesses across Canada, have been dealing with this uncertainty for months,” the letter states. “We have been forced to adapt our businesses and make other shipping arrangements for our goods.”

A number of businesses catering to online customers have already offered alternative shipping options, should there be a disruption in deliveries. Indigo Books and Music Inc., announced Monday it would fill home deliveries using carriers other than Canada Post, but didn’t say whether shipping costs would be higher.

Canada Post has been bargaining with its employees for months, but both sides were far apart as of late last week on key issues including pension changes for new employees and pay scales for rural postal workers.

Talks continued over the weekend with the aid of a special mediator and threatened job action by the union’s 51,000 members was halted under a 24-hour extension aimed at reaching a last-minute agreement before midnight Monday night.

Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers agreed to extend mediation another 24 hours late Monday.

CUPE had announced on the weekend it would begin job action on Monday by having its members refuse to work overtime on a rotating basis, starting in Alberta and the Northwest Territories. But the plan was halted when both sides agreed to a request for more time from the mediator, who was brought into the dispute Friday.

In a statement issued by her office early Monday, Labour Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk welcomed the extension of the talks as “an encouraging sign of ongoing progress and a renewed determination to negotiate.”

CUPW national president Mike Palecek previously said that the union’s planned job action would have little effect on Canada Post customers, noting mail would still be delivered.

The government hasn’t raised the possibility of legislation to end the contract dispute.