Members of supporting unions joined a group of frustrated North Bay area postal workers at a stop at Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Anthony Rota's constituency office on Main Street West this morning.
"We need the government's support on this one because we do not want to be legislated back to work. We want a negotiated contract and we do not want an arbitrated contract," said Cara-Lee Lyttle, the president of Local 576 in North Bay
"We have been down that road before."
Rota's representatives acknowledged the postal workers and encouraged them to bring in any letters that would be forwarded to Rota.
Lyttle and more than 55,000 postal workers walked off the job on Nov. 15. She says the Union continues to bring up reasonable offers on the table to Canada Post.
"Canada Post is the one that is stalling out on all of this," said Lyttle.
"We have offers that can help them not bleed any more money but they are still turning them down and it just does not make any sense. so they are not bargaining in good faith anymore."
See related: Federal Government will not send Canada Post strike to arbitration
See related: Morale high with local postal workers as the strike enters third week
Today the federal government said it is not planning to intervene to resolve the labour dispute at Canada Post, even with less than a month to go before Christmas.
Lyttle says they worked for more than 300 days without a contract and they just want some respect from Canada Post.
"This is not something new that we were coming to the table with," she said.
"They had, for 300 days, the opportunity to negotiate our contract so we are sitting back now going why don't they want to negotiate our contract, why don't they want to provide this service to our public?
"They are the ones holding this situation up not us. We want to go back to work. We want to serve our community. We want to make sure all of the Santa Claus letters get delivered from all the kids. We want that. We are just waiting for Canada Post to come back with an offer."
Canada Post workers across the country are on the picket line calling for a "fair wage" and better working conditions, which Canada Post insists will add heavy costs and create inflexibility in the postal service.
With files from the Canadian Press
