Canada Post strike won’t shut Nunavut or Nunavik post offices

Canada Post employees in Iqaluit won’t know until June 3 what services they’ll provide in the event of a national postal strike. Nunavut’s postal employees won’t strike because they are members of another union – the Canadian Postmasters Association. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

(Updated June 7, 12:50 p.m.)

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers continues to rolled out its rotating strikes, which started June in various cities across the country.

The union, which represents about 48,000 postal workers, launched a series of staggered strikes across the country last week after they were unable to
reach a wage agreement with Canada Post before a June 2 midnight strike deadline.

Winnipeg was chosen as the first site of the rotating strike because its postal plants were the first ones to introduce new mail processing machines
which have been the source of the union’s grievances.

From there, the strike rotated to other Canadian cities, including Hamilton, Montreal, Moncton and Victoria.

Talks between the two sides continued June 7, after Canada Post turned down the union’s June 6 proposal.

For now, non-CUPW post offices, such as those in Nunavut and Nunavik, will continue to accept and deliver mail as usual.

Staff at the Canada Post office in Iqaluit said last week that their outlet is “business as usual.”

In Kuujjjuaq, operations also continued normally, interim postmaster Moses Angnatuk said.

But it is unclear how a national strike would affect mail delivery across the North, where postal workers fall under the Canadian Postmasters Association.

Post offices would remain open, but likely be limited to retail service.

In the event of a CUPW national strike, almost all mail delivery would cease except for the delivery of federal social assistance cheques, such as Canada Pension Plan and Child Tax Benefit cheques.

But CUPW says there will be no mail shipped in or out of Nunavut during such a strike.

The union says it has volunteered to deliver those government cheques.

Some provinces and territories have also opted to have social assistance delivered in the case of a strike.

That won’t be a problem in Nunavut, where social assistance payments are handed out through local income support offices, GN spokeswoman Pam Coulter told Nunatsiaq News June 3.

A strike shouldn’t affect any other government spending, Coulter said, since 75 per cent of the GN’s bills are paid electronically, while its payroll and cargo do not depend on Canada Post.

In Nunavik, all social assistance recipients were requested to open bank or credit union accounts by June 1.

The CUPW, whose last contract expired in January, is asking for a four-year deal with a wage increase of 3.3 per cent in the first year and 2.75 per cent in years two and three.

Another sticking point has been sick leave. Canada Post wants to change the traditional model of building up sick days to a model that includes short-term disability.

“The strike’s purpose is to create leverage in order to encourage Canada Post to abandon its dangerous approach to modernization and their many concessions,” said CUPW president Denis Lemelin in a June 3 release. “We want to negotiate solutions.”

The two sides have been in talks for about seven weeks.

Canada Post says its core letter mail business is down 17 per cent since 2006 — a trend that will likely increase due to the increase in electronic communications.

The postal service says it must address labour costs in the round of contract negotiations with CUPW, because wage and benefits account for almost two-thirds of its revenue.

Canada Post said last week that some mail delivery might be affected during the staggered strikes, but otherwise, its network is operating normally.

(With files from Postmedia and Jane George in Kuujjuaq)