MONTREAL — Canada Post has rejected the latest contract proposal from the union representing 50,000 urban workers, saying it’s too expensive and doesn’t offer solutions to a decreasing volume of mail.
“We’ve reviewed the union’s latest offer very carefully and we have now informed them that we have rejected it,” Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton said Monday.
“It’s just too expensive and still doesn’t help us get anywhere near where we need to be in terms of addressing the challenges facing Canada Post,” Hamilton said from Ottawa.
The union’s offer didn’t offer solutions or flexibility to problems such as declining mail volumes, increasing competition and electronic substitutions for traditional mail, Canada Post said in a statement.
But Hamilton said the two sides were still negotiating and Canada Post hopes to reach a negotiated settlement.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers said it would respond to the rejection of its offer later Monday.
Canada Post said, despite the rotating strikes that began last week, most of the postal network continues to operate. Montreal was hit by a 24-hour strike Monday, which also cut postal service to outlying suburban communities.
But businesses have warned that the postal system will soon get “gummed up” once the walkout expands to larger centres such as Montreal.
“One problem will beget another problem further down the food chain and the system will become gummed up, I would imagine, in a week to 10 days,” said Dan Kelly, senior vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
Canada Post also said it has agreed to withdraw its key proposal for a system that would create more part-time positions to help it adapt to lower mail volumes.
“With the hope that CUPW would start to address the issues facing the postal system, Canada Post has offered to withdraw this key proposal. Approximately 85 per cent of the jobs in CUPW’s urban bargaining unit are full-time positions,” the Crown corporation said.
Postal service was disrupted over the weekend in Hamilton and on Friday in Winnipeg.
On the Prairies, the union said Canada Post pulled temporary letter carriers from their routes in Edmonton, Sherwood Park, St. Albert, Fort Saskatchewan and Camrose and in other communities such as Calgary and Saskatoon.
“We feel this move is sort of putting the public at hostage as way of trying to get some sort of leverage with the union at the bargaining table,” said Edmonton local union president Bev Ray.
In some cases the temporary workers were told not to come back for at least two weeks or until they are called back, Ray added.
She said temporary workers inside Canada Post plants are experiencing a similar situation and permanent part-time workers have been told their hours will be cut back or have had their days off arbitrarily changed.
Hamilton said Canada Post has to manage its costs and informed the workers that until further notice there won’t be overtime and casual employees won’t be called in to cover absences.
“Some people may find that their mail doesn’t get delivered but that will be the exception and not the rule. The majority of our routes are being covered.”
For businesses, Kelly said he hasn’t had any calls from panicked members yet saying that they felt any impact of the rotating strikes.
“The one thing about Canada Post is that customers are well used to delays,” Kelly said from Ottawa.
But if rotating strikes also hit Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary, that’s when Kelly said he expects problems to likely occur for businesses as the cumulative effects of rotating strikes would be felt.
“The strategy of gumming up the system and moving to larger distribution hubs will no doubt raise the stakes for small businesses.”
Local Montreal union president Alain Duguay said the strategy behind rotating strike is to disrupt service as little as possible.
“Our objective is that the population suffers from it as little as possible,” Duguay said, adding the union’s battle is with Canada Post not its customers.
Hamilton said the longer the strike goes on, the more impact it’s going to have on operations.
“The more this goes on the farther the impact is going to be felt, which is really unfortunate because we’re negotiating at this time,” he said from Ottawa.
Sick leave benefits, and starting wages and health and safety issues working with new equipment were sticking points for the union.