Canada Post union issues overtime ban as no deal reached ahead of strike deadline

The union representing about 55,000 Canada Post employees has called for a nationwide overtime ban, saying its negotiators will continue to review the latest offers from the Crown corporation.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) says members are being called on to refuse any work beyond eight hours a day and 40 hours a week.

The news comes as CUPW was set to be in a legal strike position as of midnight.

“Canada Post will continue operating, but customers may experience delays,” a spokesperson with the postal service provider said. “It’s unclear how CUPW’s strike action may evolve. At this time, there are no rotating strikes or national work stoppages.”

The union says the overtime ban will go into effect unless Canada Post agrees to a two-week “truce” prior to midnight, which the corporation had previously rejected.

The union says it is still going over the offer proposed on Wednesday and decided to proceed with an overtime ban to “minimize disruptions to the public and lost days to members.

“Additional actions may take place in the future,” says the union directive.

CUPW says letter carriers have been instructed to return to the depot and drop off their mail after eight hours’ work, “regardless of whether they have completed their routes.”

“This is a legal strike action. All CUPW members must follow this direction,” the union notice says. “You cannot be disciplined for participating in a legal strike action.”

The offer comes after an evening meeting between the two sides that happened at the union’s request.

Part-time weekend work has proved one of the biggest sticking points in the negotiations.

Canada Post reports “no meaningful progress” in mediated meeting

Spokesperson Lisa Liu said the meeting lasted less than half an hour and that CUPW raised only a small number of the many outstanding issues in an informal manner.

Liu said Canada Post hasn’t yet received a response from the union about its proposals issued a day earlier.

Canada Post’s offers amount to a little more than 13 per cent in wage increases over four years, where the union was looking for closer to 19 per cent to catch up after years of rampant inflation.

The union also raised concerns about Canada Post’s pitch to include more part-time staff and introduce “dynamic routing” — a model that could see mail delivery routes change on a daily basis to adjust to varying conditions, without established rules governing the system.

CUPW also argued that the six extra personal days on offer are “window dressing” and already allotted in the Canada Labour Code.

The union also took issue with a pitch to remove workers’ “five-minute wash-up time.”

Canada Post, meanwhile, said Thursday it’s already seeing mail volumes decline ahead of another possible labour disruption and is pushing for an urgent resolution.

“The Corporation will keep Canadians and businesses informed if strike activity escalates and there are changes to postal operations.”