Toronto – There is just one week left before the Canadian Union of Postal Workers’ (CUPW) strike mandate expires.
A spokesman for the union says negotiating with Canada Post without the mandate is not an option.
That is posing a problem, and a concern.
Both sides say little progress has been made on major contract negotiation issues as the country’s largest postal union nears the end of their 60-day mandate.
CUPW national president Mike Palecek said Thursday that the union needs the mandate, which allows them to call for a strike, to keep them on equal footing through the talks. It also provides leverage in bargaining.
Rather than ask union membership for another strike vote,which is time consuming and an aggravation for all concerned, another option would be a a freeze on the negotiation timeline but that would require mutual agreement from both sides.
Canada Post said prolonging the strike mandate would create further uncertainty for Canada Post customers and called CUPW’s requests for an extension to the strike mandate as “unprecedented” and “completely inappropriate.”
Canada Post notes that Canadians “could expect” a strike notice to be issued between now and the August 25 strike mandate deadline.
NOTE – Both sides said they are willing to negotiate and blame each other for over stall tactics.
CUPW represents 50,000 Canada Post workers and previously held a strike vote for the current mandate, and their negotiation team claims that all options are open to them.
