By David F. Rooney
Local postal workers are now on the picket line after they were locked out by Canada Post at about 9:15 Wednesday morning.
“We have no idea how long this will last,” said Linda Jarche of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. “I think they’re talking about back-to-work legislation.”
The Revelstoke Post Office has four full-time employees, three permanent part-time workers, five on-call temporary workers and two Rural Service Mail Carriers. Should a strike occur, federal government-issued pension cheques will continue to be delivered.
As local posties carried placards in front of the Revelstoke Post Office, passersby in vehicles waved and honked in support of their job action. Jarche said she hopes the members of other unions will come and demonstrate their support for CUPW’s locked-out members by walking the picket line with them.
Striking postal workers will receive $175 a week in strike pay after seven consecutive days on the picket line.
CUPW members have been on strike for the last two weeks since the failure of negotiations with Canada P0st. Until Wednesday their strike had been a rotating one with posties in different cities on strike for 24 hours. Now, however, postal workers across the country have been locked out by Canada Post.
“The actions of CPC management in locking out postal workers nation-wide are irresponsible,” CUPW President Denis Lemelin said in a statement Wednesday morning. “There is now a considerable amount of mail in the system that will not be delivered.
“Canada Post is reneging on its responsibility to the public to deliver mail that has been paid for. We committed to deliver pension and social assistance cheques and we intend to fulfil that commitment.
“This is a totally counterproductive response to the labour minister’s request to resume operations.”
The complete text of the union’s final offer is available at www.cupw.ca.
You can find out more about Canada Post’s offer at www.infopost.ca/customer.
