Some 48,000 Canadian postal staff are starting back at work today after the country’s Parliamentpassed a bill forcing Canada Post and the CUPW union to end a 13-day nationwide shutdown of mail
services.Mail sorting staff resumed work today. From Tuesday, Canadians and business customers can expectto start receiving mail again and post offices will start to re-open, Canada Post announced. Thecompany locked out staff and suspended operations on June 14 after nearly two weeks of rotatingstrikes across the country.
The Canadian House of Commons passed the ‘back-to-work’ postal bill (Bill C-6) on Saturday aftera hotly-debated marathon session that started earlier in the week and which forced MPs to postponethe scheduled end of Parliament for the summer break. The bill was then passed by the upper houseon Sunday.
Under the bill, a new four-year labour contract has been imposed on Canada Post employees,fixing pay increases and leaving other disputed issues to be decided by binding arbitration.
Canada Post announced that employees would return to work within the next 24-48 hours. Plantemployees would return to work first to begin sorting the mail for delivery, with deliveryemployees to follow. “We regret the impact of the work disruption on our customers. We will move asquickly as possible to process and deliver the mail,” the company said.
But it warned: “With unprocessed mail in the system and accumulated mail received from othercountries that has not yet entered our system, it will take some time to stabilise our operationsand to return to our normal delivery standards. Any mail in the system at the time of the workdisruption has been secured for processing and delivery.”
The postal union CUPW said: “With the passage of Bill C-6, the Harper government has declaredwar on postal workers and all working people. The anti-worker bias of this government wasdemonstrated clearly yesterday when the Conservative government of Stephen Harper vetoed everyattempt by the opposition parties to amend the legislation. The government even said no toproposals that would give the arbitrator the ability to mediate between the parties. As expected,the government imposed a wage increase that is less than the last offer presented by Canada Postmanagement.”
CUPW added that the legislation provides for enormous financial penalties for individuals andunion representatives in the case of defiance. “We believe that this government would use anyexcuse to destroy the union should we defy the legislation, and we will not give them anyopportunity to do so. CUPW will be contacting Canada Post to discuss a return-to-work procedure.”& amp; amp; amp; amp; lt; /p>
The union added: “We are returning to work, but we are not defeated. CUPW has been legislatedback to work in the past and that has not stopped us from continuing our struggle for justice anddignity. The government cannot legislate away our solidarity and determination.”
