A Canadian government effort to move the labor dispute between Canada Post and its mail carriers into arbitration appears to have failed as the parties dig in on their respective bargaining demands.
Minister of Jobs and Families Patty Hajdu last week requested that Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) consider binding arbitration to resolve an 18-month standoff on a new collective bargaining agreement. But the negotiating committees made no progress on Monday during meetings with federal mediators because Canada Post refused to compromise on terms for an arbitration process, according to a CUPW update posted on its website.
Canada Post has previously objected to the CUPW’s request for arbitration, saying the process would drag on for at least a year and still leave workers without a contract. The postal operator instead wants the government to go around the union leadership and conduct a worker vote on its recent “best and final” offer. It did not comment on Monday’s meeting.
The CUPW, which represents about 55,000 postal workers, complained that Canada Post insists on using recommendations for operational and financial reforms issued last month by a government commission as the basis for arbitration. It previously criticized the Industrial Inquiry Commission for mostly adopting Canada Post positions on increased use of part-time workers for weekend and weekday schedules, adjusting routes based on real-time volumes, and more evenly spreading workloads among mail carriers each day.
Canada Post has been hemorrhaging mail and parcel volumes for years, resulting in $2.7 billion losses since 2018. Parcel losses have accelerated since the CUPW carried out a 32-day strike late last year. The state-owned carrier says parcel demand is down 65% year over year.
“Canada Post is not trying to resolve this impasse; it is trying to bypass it. Canada Post doesn’t want negotiated agreements. What it wants is to impose its own terms, through government processes, effectively gutting and rewriting our collective agreements by themselves,” the CUPW said in the bargaining update.
“We are ready to enter binding interest arbitration under agreed-upon terms. We will not accept a process dictated by Canada Post Corp., especially one based on recommendations that ignore the lived realities of postal workers and the future we are fighting for,” it said.
Despite mounting frustration over contract talks, the CUPW maintained its ban on overtime work. There was no mention of escalating to a full strike, as the union threatened last month when a moratorium on pressure tactics ended.
Meanwhile, Canada Post has suspended deliveries in certain parts of western Canada because of wildfires.
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.
RELATED STORIES:
Canada Post, mail carriers remain far apart on contract as talks resume
Canada Post makes ‘final’ offer for labor deal amid growing losses
Small businesses at risk as Canada Post workers prepare to strike
