Rotating Canada Post strike hits Sherbrooke

Postal workers in Sherbrooke, Que., walked off the job early Thursday — making it the first municipality in the province affected by the rotating nationwide strike. 

By the time the sun came up at the Canada Post distribution centre in the Eastern Townships, so were picket signs as several dozen employees gathered to strike. They hovered around makeshift fires in metal barrels to keep warm.

About 300 total workers at the centre are on strike.

Local union president Patrick Bleau said pressure tactics must continue, even as a mediator has been brought in at the national level.

"We're not taking any chances," he said. "We have to continue the pressure."

Employees are overworked to the point that it is becoming a safety issue, he said, as workers deal with an increasing number of packages.

It is particularly difficult around certain holidays, he added, with some workdays ending late in the evening.

The Sherbrooke strike, which started at 4 a.m., is slated to last 24 hours as similar strikes take place in western provinces as well.

Rotating strikes affect all of Canada

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) is also holding strikes in Calgary, Alta., and Kelowna, B.C., as two days of work stoppage in the Greater Toronto Area comes to end — strikes that forced the closure of the Crown Corporation's largest sorting plants.

The nearly 9,000 CUPW members that walked off the job in the Toronto region early Tuesday were back at work as of midnight Thursday, but the temporary work stoppage delayed the shipment of tens of thousands of letters and parcels across the country.

"Our members would rather be doing their jobs than walking the picket line, but Canada Post has left us no choice,'' Mike Palecek, the union's national president, said in a statement.

"Canada Post needs to come to the bargaining table ready to talk about the issues that matter — health and safety, equality for (rural and suburban mail carriers) and an end to precarious work.''

CUPW and the postal service have been unable to reach new collective agreements for the two bargaining units in 10 months of negotiations.

Special mediator appointed

Labour Minister Patty Hajdu has appointed special mediator Morton Mitchnick, a former chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board, to help the two parties resolve their contract differences.

"The government believes in the collective bargaining process," Hajdu said in a statement. "We are doing everything in our power to help the parties reach an agreement that will satisfy everyone. "

The minister says she has met with the union and Canada Post representatives to encourage both parties to continue their negotiations, and she promises to continue "to follow the situation closely."

In a statement Wednesday evening, Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton said the Crown corporation has made "significant offers'' to CUPW — which include increased wages, job security and improved benefits — and has not asked for any concessions in return.

He said Canada Post is working to restore service and eliminate any mail and parcel backlogs.

"Canada Post continues to operate across the rest of Canada and is accepting and delivering mail and parcels in all other locations,'' Hamilton said.

With files from The Canadian Press and Radio-Canada