Canada Post rejects union’s request for binding arbitration

Canada Post rejected a request by the union representing its workers to enter binding arbitration, saying the process would be 'long and complicated.'

Canada Post has rejected a request by the union for binding arbitration, with the Crown corporation saying it would be “long and complicated.”

The Crown corporation said in a statement Sunday that it was seeking a “timely and fair resolution” that would ensure employees would “have a voice” through a vote.

“The union’s proposal to send the matter to binding arbitration would do the opposite,” Canada Post said, adding it could take more than a year.

In a response to the rejection, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) expressed its disappointment.

“This refusal constitutes yet another demonstration that CPC (Canada Post Corporation) is not interested in a reasonable outcome to this round of negotiation,” the union wrote in a news release. “A forced vote may fail to end the labour conflict and risks further division, prolonging uncertainty for all parties.”

The union had made the request Saturday after the Crown corporation asked Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu a day earlier to direct the postal workers’ union to hold a vote on the “final offers” the national mail carrier presented last week.

In a statement Friday, Canada Post said it was not possible to reach tentative agreements through negotiations “given the level of impasse and CUPW’s negotiating position.”

Such a vote would effectively adopt the final offers presented by Canada Post as a new collective agreement, in a method similar to a membership-wide ratification of a tentative deal.