Canada Post has now refused Canada Post’s final offer on the terms that CUPW outlined during negotiations. This ruling continues the deadlock between the two sides. The CUPW unites postal workers from sea to sea to sea in Canada. At this point, it’s their unwillingness to engage with Canada Post to craft terms for an arbitrator to consider that is driving the standoff between the two. The continued violence has enormous consequences. Since the 23rd of May, all CUPW members have been under an overtime ban and are now legally able to strike.
Only five days before Canada Post refused the union’s proposals, things had reached a boiling point. Still, Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu called on the two sides to immediately return to the table and agree on terms for arbitration. Yet in the face of this call for collaboration, Canada Post’s response has only widened the chasm. Liu, a representative of the CUPW, stated, “After 18 months, the parties remain at an impasse and the union has not responded to our final offers presented on May 28.”
This stalemate comes on the heels of an independent report that proposed sweeping, groundbreaking reforms to the 158-year-old Crown corporation, Canada Post. T4America’s reforms even proposed the creation of routes with greater flexibility. They proposed new part-time weekend positions that would offer the same pay rates and benefits. Yet, the CUPW has so far been successful in rebuffing all these recommendations, feeding into the growing tensions.
This inability to come to an agreement has brought both Canada Post and the CUPW to an impasse. The CUPW’s unwillingness to discuss changes to arbitration suggests a hardening of positions in a long-running battle with the corporation over the worker safeguards. They’re charting a confusing course. Their continued deadlock has the potential to drastically change postal service delivery throughout Canada.
