CUPW 502, the local chapter of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, is continuing to fight as mediation talks between Canada Post and CUPW broke down on Wednesday.
In a statement on X formally known as Twitter, Canada’s Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said a special federal mediator decided to “temporarily suspend” mediation talks as both parties remained “too far apart on critical issues for mediation.”
Speaking with Quinte News, the president for the local chapter, Shannon Cowie, says the main issue for the labour union is health and safety.
She explained a proposed new delivery method for their letter couriers.
“Right now our letter carriers, they go out, they come into our depot, they sort for a couple hours, and go out in the weather for anywhere between four to six hours,” Cowie explained to Quinte News.
“The new model wants them to go out for their whole eight hours. So they would separate their job duties and have a separate sorter. That person would only sort. They also want the letter carriers to start later in the day. So if they start later in the day, they’re now starting around noon, which is peak time in the weather for the summer months. (It) puts them later into the dark, so they’ll be delivering in the winter from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. they could be out for in the dark.”
Cowie says this increases the risks.
“There’s lots of injuries, especially with being out in the dark, not being able to see the dogs or the obstructions that are in people’s houses and their yards,” Cowie said.
She says there is also an attempt from Canada Post to try and have more gig work on weekends.
“I find that the weekend work, they want to create a lower class of workers that aren’t guaranteed hours, that don’t have benefits, that don’t have pensions, and because of that, we’re sending out our future employees at Canada Post,” Cowie explained.
“We’re setting them up to not have everything that a Canada Post union has fought for.”
Cowie says, ideally, the union would be looking at a four-year deal with a 23 per cent increase.
“We originally put off negotiations due to the pandemic, agreed to a 2% increase, and we all assumed, everybody was under the assumption that we would discuss that later. You know, the pandemic was over and we had time,” she said.
“They’ve just completely ignored the two years. We were discussing a two-year, four years I think is optimum. Four years gives us lots of time, but the longer we wait, the closer it gets to the four years as well.”
She wrapped up by thanking everyone for the support they had been receiving.
“We really, really hope we can get everybody back to work for Christmas, the Santa letters will be delivered when we return,” Cowie said.
“We did try to get them out, Canada Post won’t let us deliver them. So we will do our best to get through this and get back to the communities and the jobs that we all love and want to support.”
The strike began on November 15.
You can listen to the full interview that Quinte News’ Tim Durkin conducted with Shannon Cowie below:
With files from the Canadian Press & Quinte News’ Tim Durkin
