Mail will not be delivered in Edmonton Monday after hundreds of local postal workers walked off the job as part of a series of ongoing 24-hour rotating strikes across the country.
The Edmonton postal workers joined the picket line at 8 a.m. Mail will not be delivered within the city until postal workers return to the job Tuesday morning.
It’s the second round of walk-outs in Edmonton, which was targeted by rotating strikes on Oct. 22.
Postal workers in more than 20 communities across the country, including Calgary, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat were also on strike as negotiations between Canada Post and its workers remain stalled.
The union and the postal service have been unable to reach new collective agreements for two bargaining units after 10 months of negotiations.
‘This has got to be fixed’
“We are entering our third week of rotating strikes because management still refuses to address the urgent health and safety issues that have left postal workers the most injured group of workers in the federal sector,” Mike Palecek, CUPW national president, said in a statement Sunday.
“We’ve seen injury rates skyrocket. This has got to be fixed.”
CUPW has also called on a national overtime ban for both of its major bargaining units at Canada Post.
“Overburdening, overtime and overwork are all major issues in this round of bargaining,” Palecek said.
“Until Canada Post negotiators address it, we can solve it for ourselves in the meantime.”
The union represents 50,000 employees across Canada and about 2,000 members in Edmonton.
The Crown corporation said in a statement Sunday night that the rotating strikes have affected operations in more than 70 communities across the country causing backlogs that could delay mail delivery to its customers for several days.
Last week, Labour Minister Patty Hajdu appointed Morton Mitchnick, a former chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board, to help the two sides resolve their differences.