Canada Post shuts down operations nationwide

The Iqaluit post office is receiving mail June 14, but not accepting any to be sent. Canada Post has shut down its operations nationwide after nearly two weeks of rotating strikes and failed negotiations with its union. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

POSTMEDIA NEWS

Canada Post has shut down its operations nationwide after nearly two weeks of rotating strikes and failed negotiations with its union.

The Crown corporation says that the Canadian Union of Postal Workers’ rotating strikes have led to estimated losses of $100 million. About 50,000 employees have been locked out, Canada Post spokeswoman Anick Losier told Postmedia News Tuesday night.

“It was a difficult decision but it’s the best one right now. We don’t want to become a burden on taxpayers so we needed to do this today to be able to be self-sufficient,” she said.

“We’re still really far apart on some issues and we haven’t seen any real progress at the table.”

Postal workers from Carbonear, N.L., Sioux Lookout, Ont., and Salmon Arm, were slated to begin walkouts Tuesday night at 11 p.m. ET, a day after the rotating strike hit Toronto and Montreal.

“We believe that a lockout is the best way to bring a timely resolution to this impasse and force the union to seriously consider proposals that address the declining mail volumes and the $3.2-billion pension deficit,” said a Canada Post news release.

A CUPW spokeswoman told Postmedia News early today that the union had no comment at the time but would issue a statement later in the day.

After seven months of failed negotiations, the union called a strike two weeks ago. It was the first in 14 years.

Union negotiators have asked for a wage bump of 3.3 per cent in the first year, followed by 2.75 per cent in the subsequent years of a four-year contract.

Changing the sick leave plan has also caused contention between the two sides.

The Crown corporation’s officials offered a 1.9-per-cent increase a year, with wages starting at $18 an hour for new hires and increases capping at $26 for new and existing employees.