OTTAWA, Ontario — Mail may start shifting once more in Canada as early as subsequent week after the federal authorities moved Friday to finish a virtually monthlong work stoppage at Canada Publish.
Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon introduced he’s referred the dispute to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, with the purpose of ordering the almost 55,000 employees again to their posts and lengthening the present collective settlement till Might 22, 2025 — if the board determines a deal isn’t inside speedy attain.
“Canadians are rightly fed up,” MacKinnon mentioned.
With Christmas quick approaching, there was no obvious motion on the bargaining desk.
MacKinnon had beforehand rebuffed requires Ottawa to intervene, saying it’s as much as the 2 sides to work out a deal. However he mentioned Canadians — particularly small companies, individuals in distant communities and Indigenous individuals — have suffered tremendously on account of the strike.
The important thing points embody wages, job safety and how one can workers a proposed enlargement into weekend supply.
MacKinnon mentioned Canada Publish is constructed to ship letters however letter volumes have dropped dramatically and there’s a extremely aggressive parcel supply market.
“There are major structural changes in that industry that have to be accounted for. There are workers aspirations that have to be accounted for,” MacKinnon mentioned. “Those are interests that are tough to reconcile.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal authorities beforehand compelled the nation’s two main railroads into arbitration, ending that work stoppage.
“The Union denounces in the strongest terms this assault on our constitutionally protected right to collectively bargain and to strike,” the Canadian Union of Postal Employees mentioned in an announcement. “This order continues a deeply troubling pattern in which the government uses its arbitrary powers to let employers off the hook.”
The Canadian Federation of Impartial Enterprise welcomed the transfer. It estimates small companies have been dropping a mixed $100 million Canadian (US$70 million) daily.
“This will be too late to salvage any of the Christmas holiday season for small businesses,” CFIB president Dan Kelly mentioned in an announcement.
“With a massive backlog, it will be nearly impossible for any new shipments to make it to Canadians before Christmas through Canada Post,” he mentioned.
