The Canada Post strike has come to the West Kootenay.
Postal workers in Rossland, Trail and Castlegar set up picket lines in front of Canada Post facilities Tuesday as part of the escalating actions taking place across the country.
Luc Julien, president of the Columbia River Local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), couldn’t say how long the rotating job action would last.
“We don’t know yet,” he told the Trail Times. “We’re following directions from our national leaders.”
Julien said there are 75 unionized members, including temporary workers, in the three West Kootenay locations – 25 in Trail, five in Rossland and 45 in Castlegar.
He added the picket lines are designed to put pressure on Canada Post to come to an agreement in the dispute.
“We have been in negotiations for nearly a year and despite both parties working with a federally appointed mediator to try and achieve collective agreements, Canada Post isn’t taking the process seriously,” he said in a press release.
“The retail and processing clerks have been dramatically understaffed for far too long, especially on the night shift in Castlegar,” Julien said.
“A federal arbitrator recently ruled that the Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers (RSMC), including those who deliver outside of Castlegar, Trail and Fruitvale are entitled to equity with urban carriers, but Canada Post prefers to ignore their obligations to apply equity and provide equality for those workers.”
There is one RSMC in Fruitvale. Julien said there won’t be a picket line in that village but service may be disrupted since the sorting is done at facilities in Trail and Castlegar.
“Letter carriers are overburdened and prone to injury so we are trying to ensure their safety is respected in this round”, Julien said. “We are also trying to get the corporation to look to the future and make the local post office a vehicle for delivering community power and postal banking, in a green transitional society, which can generate revenues, provide expanded services and further support local economies by keeping stable full time retail jobs in each town.”
CUPW has been calling out locals in a series of rotating strikes across the country in an effort to get Canada Post motivated to achieve a negotiated contract with its urban, rural and suburban mail carriers.