The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has rejected Canada Post’s latest offer in their labour dispute as a delivery backlog weighs on consumers placing orders for packages during the busiest shopping period of the year.
The two parties have been negotiating for nearly a year, and the Crown corporation set midnight tonight as the deadline to accept its offer.
But the union says it won’t negotiate under arbitrary deadlines and that the offer on the table is not good enough to put before its workers.
In this photo provided by Canada Post, trucks full of undelivered parcels stand at a distribution hub in Mississauga, Ont., on Friday. (Canada Post)
“It’s clear they’ll have to do better,” the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) said in a release Friday, as the union continued its fourth week of rotating strikes.
“A vote will take place when Canada Post presents offers that meet our demands for health and safety, gender equality and more full-time jobs.” the union’s national president Mike Palecek said in a separate statement.
Workload is at the heart of the dispute, because postal workers are delivering more and more packages, primarily because of internet shopping.
Palecek says employees are overworked right now and delivering late into the night, with some walking up to 30 kilometres a day.
Canada Post suspended delivery-time guarantees to its customers last Tuesday as it reported a 30-day delivery backlog resulting from the dispute.
The company has since asked its international partners to halt mail and parcel shipments to Canada. It said more than 600 trailers are now parked at Canada Post yards, waiting to be unloaded.
In an interview with CBC News on Friday, Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton said the backlog is a record for Canada Post. He said each of the trailers contain an average of 2,500 parcels.
Decisions on how to end job actions by postal workers could come as early as Sunday, said a federal government source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, adding that “all the options include legislating.”