Canada Post union blames ‘downward spiral’ of intervention for strike

CUPW launched a national strike after the federal government announced changes to the Crown corporation's business that would reduce mail service.

The union of striking Canada Post workers is blaming a “downward spiral of government intervention” for the ever-worsening labour dispute, saying Ottawa’s recent actions have “completely ruined” the current round of negotiations.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) launched a national strike nearly two weeks ago after the federal government announced changes to the Crown corporation’s business that would see reduced mail delivery, post office closures and the phase-out of door-to-door service.

Since then, Canada Post has presented new offers that the union says are “worse” than the ones tabled and rejected by workers earlier this year — something CUPW lays squarely at the government’s feet.

“The cuts announced by the government are what Canada Post wanted to see,” the union’s national president Jan Simpson said in a statement Monday. “Now we see those cuts reflected in Canada Post’s latest offers.

“We are in a downward spiral of government intervention at Canada Post’s request and an increasing distance between the parties at the table.”

Simpson said the government’s Sept. 25 announcement — which followed recommendations laid out in the May report from the Industrial Inquiry Commission that found Canada Post is “effectively insolvent” — gave the company “permission” to propose new offers that remove a previously offered signing bonus and lay the groundwork for job cuts.

The union has previously criticized the government for asking the Canada Labour Relations Board to hold a vote on Canada Post’s last offers on May 28, which CUPW members overwhelmingly rejected, and to end a month-long strike last winter.

“Repeated government interventions in our dispute have completely ruined this round of negotiations,” Simpson said. “Every time the government has stepped in, it has only made reaching new collective agreements that much harder. With every intervention, the government has pushed the parties farther apart.”