Canada Post workers are still on the job.
A lockout expected early Monday morning was averted after Canada Post withdrew its 72-hour notice on Sunday.
After several weeks of gridlock between the Canada Post Corporation and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), negotiations appear to be back on track.
“We're very excited,” said Barbara Lilly, president of CUPW Local 818. “Everybody was excited when they went to work (Monday) morning because we anticipated to be locked out.
“It's very upbeat in our workplace today,” she added.
Last week the union repeatedly called for a 30-day cooling off period so that meaningful negotiations could take place. Canada Post agreed to the 30-day truce but with a condition of binding arbitration should no agreement be reached within that time frame.
In a statement released late Friday afternoon the CUPW publicly referred to the condition as a “poison pill.”
“You can't put conditions on it,” said Lilly, adding that since Friday it had looked like Canada Post was beginning to soften its stance regarding negotiations.
“We know that Canada Post was starting to come around to being open to talks when they didn't lock us out on Friday,” she said. “Apparently, it was reported in the media earlier (Monday) that Canada Post had agreed unconditionally to a 30-day cooling off period.
“If that's true, that's fantastic news,” added Lilly, noting the news was not yet confirmed. “At this time I haven't heard or seen any confirmation from our national office to verify that.”
In the meantime, Lilly is using social media to help keep workers informed on the constantly changing situation. She has set up a CUPW Local 818 Facebook Page that she regularly updates to notify workers of any new and pertinent changes and information.
Lilly was pleased to see Canada Post withdraw its 72-hour notice, ensuring no work stoppage or disruption of service on Monday.
A statement on the Canada Post website confirmed no lockout Monday, “which will allow both parties to focus their efforts on serious negotiations.”
“Everybody's been talking all weekend and it looks like we might be making some headway as to coming together for an agreement,” said Lilly.
Should there be another notice given the earliest anything could occur would be Thursday morning.
“I would like to sit down and talk. That's all the union wants to do is talk and see where we can take this,” said Lilly.
If and when the 30-day cooling off period is agreed to unconditionally she said, it would be a positive step in the right direction.
“Then we'd be looking at 30 days of good negotiations and hopefully a good outcome,” Lilly concluded.
