June 28, 2011 - 16:10
Urban Postal Unit Negotiations (2011) / Media Release
For Immediate Release
Ottawa: First they were locked out. Then they were legislated back again. Now postal workers in some parts of the country are being handed a new delivery policy telling them they can’t deliver the mail even though they are back on the job.
“In some places, Canada Post is telling letter carriers to bring back mail, even if they aren’t finished their route,” said Denis Lemelin, National President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. “Piles of backlogged mail are sitting in postal depots while Canada Post pushes its employees around.”
In Montreal, Windsor, Hamilton, Scarborough and Kitchener, letter carriers reporting for duty were instructed to return all their undelivered mail to their originating office after eight hours of work. Prior to the labour dispute, letter carriers would have been able to deliver mail to all the addresses on their route.
The union points out that the new policy will further hold up mail delivery, which was shut down by Canada Post on June 14th.
“Canada Post has an obligation to provide postal service to all citizens under the Canada Post Corporation Act,” said Lemelin. “Instead, management continues to hold the public’s mail hostage.”
“The Harper government claimed it had to legislate us back to work because getting the mail moving is vital for the economy. What is the Minister of Labour going to do about Canada Post putting policies in place that delay large volumes of mail?”
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