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By Glory Przekop with files from The Canadian Press

Canada Post rotating strike hits Grande Prairie

Nov 2, 2018 | 8:34 AM

The Canada Post rotating strikes have made it to the city with the Grande Prairie local on strike as of 8 a.m.

 

 

 

Members of the CUPW Local 744 are walking with picket signs by the city’s sorting centre this morning. 

“We are out here today because Canada Post has refused to negotiate with us on our contract.  They have put forward a proposal, but the proposal doesn’t nearly address the issues we need it to.  Health and safety are really our biggest concern.  We have one of the highest injury rates of the federal sector, so we are really trying to look at that number getting reduced and how our employees come home at the end of the day safe and alive,” explained Vice President of the CUPW Local 744 Connor Dowd-Taylor.  “We are hoping to get out the message that we are willing to negotiate, but when push comes to shove, if we need to, we will go on strike and we will take action to make Canada Post notice that we’re not just going to take their offer.  We do need to fight for what’s right and we are going to do that here today.”  

The union representing Canada Post employees says 800 workers have walked off the job in the southwestern Ontario cities of Kitchener and Waterloo as rotating strikes continue across the country.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says the walkout started Friday just after midnight.

CUPW also says workers in Moncton, N.B., joined the picket lines Thursday evening, along with union locals in Hamilton, Ottawa, North Bay, Ont., Regina and Outaouais-Quebecois, Que.

The union and the postal service have been unable to reach new collective agreements for two bargaining units after 10 months of negotiations.

Canada Post says it has provided “significant” offers to its employees, including wage hikes, but CUPW says it falls far below expected cost-of-living increases.

The strike at the Kitchener-Waterloo local comes a day after CUPW called for a national overtime ban, meaning postal workers can refuse to work beyond their normal eight-hour days.

by Glory Przekop with files from The Canadian Press