Mediated contract talks between Canada Post and the union representing more than 55,000 workers appear to have hit an impasse over the weekend with both sides accusing the other of digging in their heels.
“Unfortunately, the union’s response showed little meaningful movement on our core needs,” Canada Post said in a statement, “and failed to acknowledge the significant challenges facing the Corporation.”
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers response to the stalled talks struck a similar tone.
“CUPW entered negotiations in good faith, prepared to bargain,” CUPW said in a press release, “but Canada Post continued to demand significant rollbacks that no union could accept.”
If the two sides fail to reach an agreement before May 22 the strike — which halted Canada’s mail service for a month last year just before the busy holiday season — would start again immediately.
Last December, Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon ordered postal workers back to work and both sides to the bargaining table under a special government mediator.
Happening alongside these talks is a legal challenge issued by CUPW, alleging the ministry’s pause of the strike violated union members’ constitutional right to strike.
The battle over this issue is playing out before the Canadian Industrial Relations Board, with hearings scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.
At issue in mediations are disagreements over wages and a push by Canada Post to expand delivery to weekends.
The union has also put forward proposals with changes to the group benefits plans and protections against technological changes, which Canada Post said Sunday would “create more rigidity in our delivery model, add significant costs, and accelerate the company’s declining financial position.”
These negotiations are particularly difficult because both sides have disagreements over “qualitative” rather than “quantitative” issues, according to Adam King, a labour studies professor at the University of Manitoba.
“If it were just a matter of a percentage wage increase, you can see both sides meeting in the middle on an issue like that,” he said. “But what we’re dealing with here is more qualitative issue around the composition of employment in weekend parcel delivery.”
Over the weekend, Canada Post said in its statement that it proposed a “workable and affordable weekend delivery model” that would create “part-time flex positions” with guaranteed hours during the week and maintain “significant protections” to employees.
“These changes are essential to provide Canada Post the ability to grow its core delivery business in today’s competitive environment,” the company wrote in its statement.
CUPW did not address this proposal in its statement, but said it “remains resolute in its fight for justice and fair working conditions for postal workers.”
King added that CUPW has lost some of its power at the negotiating table as a result of the federal government’s pause on the strike.
“The employer has much more bargaining leverage because you’re already locked into an industrial inquiry commission,” he said, noting that the inquiry is also tasked with examining Canada Post’s business model.
The national postal service — a Crown corporation — has seen dwindling revenues and fewer deliveries made over the past several years.
The company sounded the alarm around its financial situation at a public hearing before the federal Industrial Inquiry Commission (IIC) earlier this month, just days after parting ways with its chief financial officer and receiving a $1 billion loan from the federal government.
Under the labour ministry’s order, the inquiry led by mediator William Kaplan, has until May 15 to probe potential ways to reach a new contract between Canada Post and its union. The inquiry’s recommendations are not binding, meaning either Canada Post or CUPW could reject the suggestions and trigger a restart on the strike.
A Canada Post spokesman said no future talks are “scheduled at the moment, but we remain committed to negotiating new collective agreements.”
CUPW echoed this interest in later discussions in its Sunday statement, adding, “the best collective agreements are achieved at the bargaining table.”
With files from Hayden Godfrey, Josh Rubin and The Canadian Press
