Rotating strikes by Canada Post workers have returned to Metro Vancouver.
Angu Parmar, third vice president for the Vancouver local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) said about 1,600 workers at a Richmond sorting facility walked off the job and were picketing on Saturday.
The facility sorts and dispatches parcels and mail for depots across the province.
“They will be missing delivery for sure on Monday or Tuesday. There’s a lot of mail inside,” said Parmar.
“It’s a parcel hub basically. Everything comes here for the whole province and we sort and dispatch it.”
The union said locals in all other B.C. communities that saw job action on Friday were back at work on Saturday.
Postal workers have been carrying out rotating strikes since Oct. 22, with the job action now having touched more than 150 communities.
Parmar said the union had opted for rotating strikes to get its message across to the employer while trying to minimize the impact on customers.
“We are hoping that Canada Post comes to the table and bargains with us,” she said.
The rotating strike last targeted the Richmond facility on Oct. 26.
The union, which represents about 50,000 postal workers, says it is striking over health and safety concerns, forced overtime and what it says are issues related to the growing number of parcel deliveries.
The union and Canada Post have been unable to negotiate a new contract for the past year.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested he was running out of patience with the labour dispute, and that his government could act soon to end it if the two sides can’t reach a deal.
Labour Minister Patty Hadju appointed a special mediator in the dispute more than two weeks ago in an effort to help Canada Post and the union bridge their differences.
-With files from Amanda Connolly and the Canadian Press
Source: Read Full Article