Postal strike comes to Kitchener-Waterloo
Canada Post workers join hundreds across country on picket line
WATERLOO REGION — About 800 Canada Post employees in Waterloo Region walked off the job Friday, joining rotating strikes across the country.
Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Kitchener-Waterloo Local 560 were picketing at a number of Canada Post locations throughout the day, including at the processing plant on Trillium Drive in Kitchener.
They are expected to be off the job for at least 24 hours, Steve Hinschberger, union local president, said Friday
“All we’re trying to do is get Canada Post back to the bargaining table and bargain in good faith,” said Hinschberger, who has worked with Canada Post in Kitchener for 25 years.
Those on strike work in the region’s processing plants and also deliver mail and parcels. Canada Post is the country’s No. 1 parcel delivery service.
“It’s going to impact a lot of people, we understand that,” Hinschberger said, adding that between 6,000 and 12,000 are processed in the Kitchener plant in any eight-hour night shift.
“Our position is that we don’t want to impact the Canadian people fully, that’s why we’re doing rotating (strikes).”
On Friday, employees in the region joined hundreds of others striking in cities across the country, including St. John’s, Sault Ste. Marie, Hamilton, Timmins, Moncton and Regina.
The union and the postal service have been unable to reach new collective agreements for two bargaining units after 10 months of negotiations.
Canada Post says it has provided “significant” offers to its employees, including wage hikes, but CUPW says it falls far below expected cost-of-living increases.
The strike at the KitchenerWaterloo local comes a day after CUPW called for a national overtime ban, meaning postal workers can refuse to work beyond their normal eight-hour days.
“Overburdening, overtime and overwork are all major issues in this round of bargaining,” CUPW national president Mike Palecek said in a statement Friday.
“Until Canada Post negotiators address it, we can solve it for ourselves in the meantime.”
Last Tuesday, Labour Minister Patty Hajdu appointed Morton Mitchnick, a former chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board, to help the two parties resolve their differences.