Striking postal carriers are back delivering the mail after being ordered back to work by the Canadian Industrial Relations Board.
It was a tense couple of days this week at the Canada Post distribution centre at Hebert Road in St. Albert after more than a dozen disgruntled rural and suburban mail carriers held a wildcat strike Tuesday morning after receiving notices of pay cuts.
By Wednesday they picketed the building, holding signs reading, “We are working slaves,” while trying to prevent their contracted replacements from getting in.
The striking workers were joined by representatives from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
“Pay the workers for the work they do!” was the battle cry, as management inside attempted to get the contractors in.
“[Tuesday] morning they were all handed individual letters, advising them that they were going to be reducing their parcel count,” said Bev Ray, CUPW local president. “It is going to impact their yearly income … there was no notice given.”
Ray said the extent of the cutback is not confirmed but could range from $8,000 to $28,000.
When word of these cuts came down, workers walked across the street for “a long coffee break” to plan action.
“It was effective the day before,” said one carrier, who preferred not to be named. “We got the letter the day after … nobody knew anything about it and now all of a sudden our money’s going to go down.”
Canada Post called the disruption an illegal work stoppage, one that led to mail not being delivered to several routes Wednesday and Thursday.
Spokesperson Kathi Neal said Wednesday Canada Post planned to contact the Canada Industrial Relations Board to have employees ordered back to work.
“The main goal is to ensure mail delivery resumes for the customers,” she said.
Ray said the workers received word Thursday afternoon the CIRB had in fact ordered them back to work. By Friday they had returned.
“If they would have refused to follow that order then we potentially could have been seeing people getting arrested and charged,” said Ray.
The priority now for both sides is catching up on undelivered mail.
For the time being the pay reduction has been tabled, Ray said. There is a meeting set up for next week to discuss it in detail.
There is hope among the workers fair resolution can be negotiated.
How the workers chose to get their point across is another issue. Staff will know within 10 days if Canada Post will dock pay or terminate jobs.
“If we look at past practice, you usually don’t see [those measures] at this point,” said Ray.
“I don’t think any worker comes to this decision lightly. This isn’t something that they just do — this was serious consideration,” added another worker.
Neal said the issue is an internal matter at this point, and Canada Post will not comment further beyond confirming the workers are back on the job and mail service has resumed.
