It’s a no from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers when it comes to the prospect of bringing negotiations with Canada Post into binding arbitration.
CUPW’s national director for the Atlantic region Jeff Callaghan says they think collective bargaining is the solution and they’re asking Canada Post to come back to the table and negotiate fairly. He believes the two parties can reach a settlement.
“The law of the land in this country is free collective bargaining, that’s the process that the parties are in now,” says Callaghan, “we think there’s an obligation on both parties, both the union and Canada Post to sit down and negotiate fairly a collective agreement.”
He tells us Canada Post has a history of tying up issues in the courts for long periods of time.
“Even if an arbitrator was to rule on an issue…Canada Post would have the ability to then take that to the court and judicially review it and have it taken all the way to the Supreme Court which could take years.”
Canada Post, meantime, has agreed to go to binding arbitration and have agreed to extend the lockout notice to Monday at 12:01am. On Wednesday, federal Labour minister MaryAnn Mihychuck asked both parties to go into binding arbitration.
