Talks between Canada Post and its union broke off Wednesday night as MPs prepare to deal with back-to-work legislation.

Canada Post said that despite 72 hours of negotiations they have not been able to reach an agreement with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.

The company in a release late Wednesday said the two sides are far apart on several issues.

The union says the Crown corporation made no significant moves were maintaining 10 demands for major rollbacks.

The House of Commons was expected to break for the summer on Thursday but all parties say they’re prepared to keep sitting through the weekend to debate legislation that would send thousands of locked-out postal employees back to work.

The Tories want the bill passed as soon as possible but the NDP wants to delay it to give both sides more time to reach an agreement on their own.

The back-to-work bill contains several controversial measures, including wage rates that are lower than what Canada Post had been offering its union and guidelines for the arbitrator that some suggest are biased towards management.

While the Conservatives will use their majority numbers to cut short discussion on how the bill should be debated, government House leader Peter Van Loan says there are no restrictions on the length of debate on the bill itself.

“If everyone wants to co-operate, we could finish as early as Thursday or early into Friday, but if the other parties are determined to prolong this matter, we could be sitting into the weekend,” Mr. Van Loan said following the final Conservative caucus meeting of the spring session.

The bill would then go to the Senate, which has also said it will sit as long as needed to pass the government’s agenda.

Sitting on Friday means parliamentarians will be at work on St-Jean-Baptiste Day, a provincial holiday in Quebec that parallels Canada Day.

The Liberals said that’s inappropriate.

“We don’t sit on July 1, we don’t think we should be sitting on June 24,” said Liberal Leader Bob Rae.

“So whatever happens, we’re happy to sit on a Saturday, we’re happy to sit on a Sunday but we think it sets a terrible precedent for us to be sitting through that kind of a holiday,” he said.

Conservative Senator Claude Carignan, who is from Quebec, likened the work his colleagues need to do to essential services like nurses and police officers.

“There are plenty of people who work on St. Jean Baptiste Day,” he said in French.

“It’s not our first choice but if it’s what we have to do to make sure postal service resumes as quickly as possible, that’s what we’ll do.”

While the Tories stress the legislation is the only way to avoid economic fallout from a prolonged lockout, NDP Leader Jack Layton suggested any economic damage is their fault.

The union had been carrying out a series of rotating strikes before they were locked out by Canada Post, a Crown corporation, last week.

The workers argue that management barred the doors precisely to get the back-to-work legislation now on the table. Canada Post has said they still want a negotiated settlement.

“It seems pretty obvious to me that Canada Post and the government have been in some kind of discussions,” said Mr. Layton.

“If you just look at the way the legislation is constructed and the timing of when it was brought in, it’s pretty much impossible for me to believe that there were no discussions.”

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The federal government tabled back-to-work legislation Monday afternoon to end the Canada Post lockout, the second time in a week it moved to end a work stoppage.

Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt introduced the bill in the House of Commons, which would have an arbitrator pick one side’s offer over the other. The government tabled similar legislation to end a strike by Air Canada employees.

Raitt wants the bill passed within a few days to get the mail moving again. The House of Commons is also expected to rest for the summer on Friday.

However, Canada Post and the union are now talking after an unproductive weekend failed to make any progress towards ending the lockout. Last week, Canada Post suspended urban operations after nearly two weeks of 24-hour rotating strikes by workers.

As Raitt spoke to Parliament, members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) were demonstrating across the country, trying to rally public support to their cause. By Monday evening, they were occupying the offices of Conservative MPs across the country.

Demonstrations are scheduled to continue until Friday.

“We’ve done everything in our power to achieve a negotiated settlement with as little disruption to the public as possible,” Mike Palacek, a postal worker from Vancouver, said in a news release.

“Canada Post’s response has been to suspend all of its services, lock us out, and wait for back-to-work legislation.”

Raitt said the two sides have had more than enough time to come to a deal.

“It is both parties at the table who are negotiating and have been unable to obtain an agreement,” she said.

But the opposition parties say the bill sets a dangerous precedent on the side of employers.

“The government picked sides today,” NDP MP Chris Charlton, the party’s chief Opposition whip, told CTV’s Power Play. “The minister introduced a bill that was very employer friendly. It pretty much said, ‘These are the conditions employers need and we are going to put those into legislation.’ We cannot support a piece of legislation that interferes with free collective bargaining.”

Liberal MP and labour critic Rodger Cuzner said the government’s threat of back-to-work legislation was what caused the lockout in the first place.

“Once (Canada Post) heard that back-to-work legislation was coming for Air Canada, they triggered the lockout and that just tipped the whole field,” Cuzner said.

Some critics say the government’s quick move towards back-to-work legislation may have some workers wondering about the point of striking.

“It is very much a shift and it is really putting management interests, whether they are government or private, ahead of employees,” Laurel Sefton MacDowell, a labour relations historian at the University of Toronto, told The Canadian Press.

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Striking postal workers will get a boost today from the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

More than 400 PSAC members will march from Portage And Main at noon today to the Canada Post building on Graham Avenue. The march is in support of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which is involved in rotating strikes in major cities across Canada to press their contract demands.

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Today CUPW submitted a final offer to reach an agreement without a strike or lockout. There were several important amendments and clarifications to our positions. The entire offer can be viewed online at www.cupw.ca and has been distributed to CUPW locals. CPC management has not yet replied to the union although they issued a press release indicating that they are rejecting the union’s proposals.

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OTTAWA, May 30, 2011 /CNW/ – The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has made a final offer to Canada Post in the hopes of negotiating a settlement.

The offer includes several important amendments and clarifications to our positions and we are confident this offer can be accepted by CPC as the basis of a settlement.

CUPW has also given the notice, required by the Canada Labour Code, of its intent to strike if there is no settlement flowing from its final offer. The union will be in a legal position to strike on Thursday, June 2, 2011, at 11:59 p.m. EDT. The union said the notice puts pressure on Canada Post to actually negotiate.

“Striking is our only real bargaining lever with Canada Post and we have concluded that we must give notice that we are willing to use our legal right to strike to get a decent contract that meets the needs of our members and preserves public postal service,” said CUPW National President Denis Lemelin.

“After seven months of negotiations, Canada Post continues to demand major concessions, including unsafe work methods, a 22 per cent wage reduction for new hires and the elimination of a sick leave plan that members have had for over 40 years,” said Lemelin.

“Canada Post’s intransigence at the bargaining table has left the union with little choice but to accept unsafe and unfair conditions or strike. But we hope it won’t come to that.”

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By LuAnn LaSalle, The Canadian Press

Canada Post has rejected its union’s latest contract proposal, saying the offer would increase the Crown corporation’s labour costs by $1.4 billion and include the possibility of raising postage prices.

The Crown corporation would need to raise the price of postage by 15 per cent or request government support to offset the expense, Canada Post said Tuesday in a statement.

“The union’s offer would add $1.4 billion of new costs to Canada Post over the life of the contract and provides no compromises to address the challenges facing the company,” Canada Post said in a statement.

Among those challenges, Canada Post said it has experienced a double-digit drop in the volume of mail in the last decade due to the emergence of electronic alternatives and has a pension deficit of $3 billion.

“This round of labour negotiations is critically important to the future of Canada Post and the Crown corporation’s ability to provide affordable postal services to Canadians without becoming a burden on taxpayers.”

Canada Post said it has put forward a counter offer and has not yet initiated a 72-hour notice for a lockout.

It said the union’s latest offer would give employees a 3.5 per cent wage increase in each year of a new 3 1/2-year agreement, including in the final six months of a new deal.

The union representing urban postal workers did not respond immediately to the counter-offer and couldn’t be reached for comment.

Catherine Swift of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said even though there are electronic and other alternatives for businesses, that accepting the union’s offer would increase costs.

“Certainly, it’s not like it used to be but there’s still a reliance on mail,” said Swift, president and CEO of the organization which has more than 108,000 members.

“Obviously, things like couriers have to be considered, things like postponing getting in touch with suppliers because payments still come via the mail. It could affect cash flow very negatively if payments were held up from customers and suppliers and basically increase costs,” Swift said from Toronto.

“It’s a big nuisance, to put it mildly.”

The union had threatened job action if a deal wasn’t reached by this week but the lack of a 72-hour notice effectively means there wouldn’t be a strike or lockout before Friday.

An earlier agreement covering some 50,000 employees expired on Jan. 31, and talks on a new deal began last fall. Last week, Canada Post reached an agreement with the union to bring in volunteer postal workers in some provinces to deliver cheques to pensioners and those on social assistance should a labour disruption occur.

Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt urged both sides late last week to reach a deal to avert a potential disruption of the country’s mail service.

CALGARY (© Copyright (c) Shaw Media Inc.) – The union representing Canada Post employees says it will file a 72-hour strike notice on Friday.

“After months of talks, it’s time to draw our line in the sand,” said Bev Ray, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) in Edmonton.

“We have now reached the point where we may have to give notice that in 72 hours, we will be forced to strike if Canada Post does not drop its rollbacks and address some of our demands.”

Ray says the proposed rollbacks from Canada Post are attacks on working-class people being able to earn a “living wage” and on the rights of Canadians to have a public postal service that reflects and response to the needs of their communities.

“Instead of focusing on service, Canada Post is driven solely by profits,” says Ray.

CUPW will give an update on its talks with Canada Post late Friday morning.

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The threat by Canada Post workers to walk off their jobs as early as May 25 has mail-reliant businesses and operations across the country bracing for a potential disruption in service.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers voted in late April in favour of striking if a collective agreement with Canada Post is not reached by May 24.

According to union president Denis Lemelin, union negotiators are focusing on a number of major issues in their final week of talks with Canada Post Corp. Major issues on the table include wages, staffing and disabilities.

With a week to go before the potential strike, the Canadian Bankers Association has issued a notice to bank customers to begin preparing for a halt in mail service.

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Local postal workers are in a legal strike position on May 24 after their union voted 95 per cent in favour of strike action if they can’t reach an agreement with Canada Post.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) is currently negotiating a new contract with Canada Post.
Paul Murray is president of the Collingwood local, which represents about 27 members, a combination of letter carriers and clerks.

Murray said workers are looking for pension protection and are trying to curb any rollbacks. He said the company is looking at introducing a two-tier wage and pension system for new hires.

The current employees would still have a defined pension plan, while new employees would have a different plan.

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