Rotating postal strike hits Calgary, Edmonton
Posted Jun 8, 2011 2:49 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There will be no need to check the mail today.
Wednesday, striking union members with Canada Post targetted Calgary and Edmonton as part of their rotating strikes.
So what’s the job action all about?
Job safety and staffing says Canadian Union of Postal Workers local President Anna Beale, who adds it’s too soon to say if the rotating strikes could escalate.
“If they’re” (Canada Post) “entrenched in not moving, it doesn’t leave us with much choice,” Beale tells 660News. “But we’ve been dealing with this employer for 40 years, and they’re not new to the process, the same as we aren’t new. And there’s going to be movement.”
For his part, Canada Post spokesman John Hamilton says he’s hopeful that CUP-W members will see that the crown corporation has put together a generous offer.
“They seem to have no interest in helping to reduce costs as we deal with challenges that the internet is having on our business,” Hamilton tells 660News. “We’re trying to secure the future of the company.”
Hamilton adds if the workers had their way, they would turn back time and deliver mail the way it’s been done for 40 years.
“Sadly that’s not going to work,” he says. “I think we’d all like to be able to turn back the clock and live in a simpler time, but that’s not the reality. And if we don’t start looking forward together, we’re going to run smack dab into the future.”
But the union disputes that claim, especially the impact that the internet is having on the postal service and revenues.
“Because we have an awful lot of businesses that have been created due to the internet,” says Beale. “That’s where they do a lot of their work. And then they send their bills out first-class mail. The parcels, the small parcels, we have all kinds of lingo for those, they all come out through the mail.”
Instead, the union claims the differences aren’t about technology and revenues, but job safety and staffing issues.
“We started the rotating strikes to have the employer move,” adds Beale. “If we would have gone out across the country, there was a very good chance the employer could have said, ‘Oh well,’ and just not done anything. But with rotating strikes, you see our fight isn’t with the public. We want the public to have their mail.”
But Hamilton counters that during the negotiation process, compromises have to be made and the union doesn’t seem to recognize that fact.
“It’s unfortunate because I’m sure the people of Calgary woke up this morning and said, ‘Well there’s a strike, there must be no negotiations going on,'” says Hamilton. “No, negotiations are there and we’re at the table. So it is a completely unnecessary withdrawl of service.”
Calgary postal workers, and their counterparts in Edmonton, will continue to walk the picket line until midnight Wednesday.
