Canada Post says it will be sending new offers to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) in an effort to move negotiations forward.
The Crown corporation said the new terms will allow the two sides to return to the bargaining table next week, with work already underway to make that happen.
The move comes after the union representing 55,000 postal workers imposed a ban on flyer deliveries that started Monday, as the union also urged Canada Post back to negotiations.
In early August, union members voted down what Canada Post said was its final offer. The union put forward its latest counter-proposal on Aug. 20, which Canada Post said adds significant new costs and restrictions at a challenging time for the postal service.
Canada Post said it asked the union to come back with a more workable solution, but since that hasn’t happened, it decided to present new global offers with the hopes that the two sides can find common ground on important issues like weekend delivery.
“After postal workers decisively rejected Canada Post’s last offers, the corporation refused to negotiate and instead demanded postal workers accept the same rollbacks they had just rejected,” a representative for CUPW told CBC News in an emailed statement.
“We hope these new offers reflect the needs of postal workers and protect, enhance and sustain the public postal service for all Canadians. The negotiating committees will thoroughly examine and analyze the offers before making any further comments.”
The ban on flyer delivery will continue, according to the statement.
On Friday, Jan Simpson, national president for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, urged Canada Post to resume negotiations and approach them with the ‘seriousness they deserve.’ Simpson says the union is preparing to shift tactics, with a plan to lift an overtime ban and move to stop delivering commercial flyers.
Pressure on as holiday season approaches
Pressure is mounting to reach a deal as the crucial holiday season approaches.
A strike and lockout lasted more than a month in November and December last year, ending only after then-labour minister Steven MacKinnon declared an impasse in the talks and asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order an end to the work stoppage.
Jan Simpson, president of CUPW, said last Friday that the union shifted from an overtime ban to the flyer ban to address Canada Post’s objections to how it was affecting operations.
She said the goal is to get a deal in place before Christmas, but that if Canada Post “continues to stall, postal workers will have no choice but to consider stronger actions to move negotiations ahead.”
Canada Post said that it has asked the union to deliver the flyers that are currently trapped in its network ahead of the restart of talks. It said the ban on flyer deliveries is affecting many customers, including community newspapers, small businesses and charities.
The two sides have been in contract talks for almost two years over issues like wages and part-time workers at a time that the postal service keeps incurring significant financial losses.
