Despite the fact that things are better with a new government in place, Canada Post union officials are once again frustrated with management as they try to avoid a potential July 2nd work stoppage.
“Canada Post has come out through Jon Hamilton (Canada Post Spokesman) saying we are not getting anywhere. I believe they are not trying, I believe they are not bargaining in good faith or even making that attempt to push the labour disruption issue,” stated North Bay CUPW Local 576 President Keith Bradford.
Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) have been in contract negotiations since late 2015 to reach a new agreement for about 50,000 workers, including 113 in the North Bay area.
Bradford believes, from the management perspective, its all about strategic timing.
“If they don’t do this now, middle of August through to Christmas time is of course our busy time of year and they don’t want to have the chance of a strike through that time,” said Bradford.
National reports have surfaced that Canada Post has already contacted some of its major clients to make them aware of a work stoppage. Bradford wants to ensure jobs are protected in the area, and he hopes to see some dysfunctional procedures change.
“We’ve kept those jobs locally and now we want to expand them because right now if you want to mail a letter in downtown North Bay to go to Callander, it’s going to go to Toronto first then back up. This doesn’t make sense to anybody. We are taking jobs and bringing them down to Toronto and we are taking away from North Bay,” Bradford explained.
Bradford believes management needs to look more at expanding services instead of cutting them back. That includes initiatives like postal banking he believes can help grow the business.
While this labour dispute may be out of the hands of Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Anthony Rota, Bradford says he’s pleased to have local support from the MP, something he says postal workers didn’t have with former Conservative MP Jay Aspin.
“We don’t see eye to eye on a few things but he is more than willing to discuss things, and to get a handle and an understanding on what is happening,” Bradford said about Rota.
“It’s good to have that type of communication, and at least we have a government that wants to listen.”
CUPW members are expected to have a strike vote sometime in June.
