Canada Post said Saturday there’s been no “major breakthrough” in talks with the postal workers’ union as the ongoing strike entered its second week and the two sides remain far apart at the negotiating table.
Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) kept negotiating over the weekend, along with the support of a special mediator.
Jon Hamilton, Canada Post’s vice-president of strategic communications, told Global News the struggling company wants to reach a fair deal with the union that addresses their needs, but said fully meeting all the CUPW’s demands could limit its ability to grow its business.
“Obviously, we want to continue to ensure that we have good paying jobs for our people, but there’s only so far we can go,” Hamilton said.
The Crown corporation said Friday it lost $315 million before tax in the third quarter, larger than its $290-million loss a year earlier.
The financial results put Canada Post on track for “another significant loss” in 2024, which would mark the seventh year in a row in the red.
CUPW national president Jan Simpson told Global News that although “morale is up” among picketing postal workers, some layoffs and benefit cancellations have begun as the company tries to save its bottom line.
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“You can’t expect to negotiate a contract and save your company on the backs of workers,” she said in an interview.
“We went to the bargaining table over a year ago with them. … This could have been done a long time ago.”
Canada Post said Saturday it has seen a shortage of more than eight million parcels amid the ongoing strike compared with the same period in 2023.
More than 55,000 workers across the country walked off the job on Nov. 15. The main sticking points continue to be wages and contract work as well as job security, benefits and working conditions.
Canada Post says it has offered wage increases totalling 11.5 per cent over four years and additional paid leave, while protecting the defined benefit pension and job security provisions. But the union has called for a cumulative wage hike of 24 per cent over four years, arguing inflation has put workers behind the cost of living.
It also wants full-time employees to deliver package shipments on weekends, while Canada Post hopes to hire part-time contract workers. CUPW claims the part-time workers would start lower on the wage and benefit scale.
“You don’t want to create a gigified workplace within a Crown corporation,” Simpson said.
“You should be leading by example. It’s not a race to the bottom. You should be lifting people up.”
Hamilton said Canada Post has identified weekend parcel delivery as a growth opportunity for the business, but that “adding more fixed costs” through additional full-time workers “is only going to put us out of the competitive game and mean that we’re going to shrink further.”
Friday’s earnings report said the number of packages delivered by Canada Post dropped by six million or nearly 10 per cent year-over-year. Letter mail volumes also eroded further, though revenue nudged up due to a hike in stamp prices, it said.
Competing shipping companies like Purolator and FedEx, which already dominate weekend deliveries, have seen their business go up during the strike.
Canada Post claims labour costs went up by $242 million in 2023 over 2022, and accounts for 70 per cent of its revenue. CUPW has accused the company of prioritizing executive bonuses over workers.
Both sides say they want to reach a deal at the negotiating table before the federal government intervenes in any way. Ottawa has so far rebuffed growing calls to step in.
“We’re still committed to negotiating a deal,” Hamilton said. “We have made some progress. There has not yet been a major breakthrough, though, and movement has been slow.
“Obviously, we want to see that speed up because … this is a huge impact on Canada Post. But more importantly, there’s a huge impact on Canadians, on small businesses, on charities and so many others in remote northern communities that have not had the postal service and either gone to the competition or been left behind for the last nine days.”
—with files from the Canadian Press
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
