Canada Post employees in Red Deer hope a negotiated settlement is possible, even though the federal government introduced legislation Thursday to put a stop to job action.
The government said it would hold off debating the bill to give a special mediator time to settle the labour dispute.
Barbara Lilly, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Local 818, said it didn’t have to come to this.
“The union is still attempting to negotiate. I’m not sure about Canada Post. I don’t know if they’re talking right now or leaving it up to the government,” Red Deer’s Lilly said.
Canada Post likes to talk about a huge backlog of mail, but that’s not the case in Red Deer, she said.
“We just have to wait and see what government has in store for us and we’ll proceed from there, I guess.”
Rotating strikes started a month ago. Red Deer workers were on the picket line Oct. 25, but Lilly didn’t think their message got out to the public. Core demands are still job security and equality, she said.
“It’s important that the public knows what our struggles are,” Lilly said.
Critics complained the move to back-to-work legislation undermined the collective-bargaining process, just one day after mediator Morton Mitchnick resumed efforts to break the impasse between the Crown corporation and its 50,000 employees.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association called the legislation “a serious threat to workers’ constitutional rights.”
The Liberal government did not come to the decision lightly, Labour Minister Patty Hajdu told the House of Commons after tabling the bill.
“Negotiated agreements are always the best solution,” Hajdu said as she spoke in support of a concurrent motion to fast-track the legislation if necessary.
“We wouldn’t come down this road; however, we have exhausted every option.”
Isolated strikes saw postal workers hit picket lines Thursday in Pickering, Dryden, Elliot Lake and Blind River, Ont. Walkouts also continued in Acton, Georgetown, Tillsonburg, Ajax and Bolton in Ontario, and in Calgary and Kamloops, B.C.
CUPW has warned of a legal battle if the federal government passes the back-to-work legislation, calling such a move unconstitutional and noting that a judge ruled as illegal a similar bill introduced in 2011 by the previous Conservative government.
“We went to court and won this fight after the 2011 legislation,” the union said in a statement on its website. “We will fight once again, should that right be taken away.”
But Hajdu said the Liberal government’s legislation is “very different” than what was passed under the Harper government.
Mitchnick, a lawyer and former chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board, was re-appointed earlier this week to bring an outside voice back to the bargaining table. He had previously tried, but failed, to bring both sides in the dispute closer to a resolution of their differences.
Canada Post has said it could take several weeks — even stretching into 2019 — to clear the backlog that has built up, especially at major sorting centres in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
Hajdu said the dispute cannot be left to drag on because jobs and Canada’s economic well-being are at stake.
“This ongoing work stoppage has had significant negative impacts on Canadians, businesses, international commerce, Canada Post, its workers and their families,” she said.
“With Canadians and Canadian businesses feeling serious impacts, our government is prepared to legislate a path forward to keep goods moving.”
— With files from The Canadian Press