The latest offers by Canada Post are worse than they were before, the union representing postal workers said in a statement Saturday.
“Postal workers expected improved offers after being made to wait for 45 days after CUPW presented our offers. Instead, the offers are worse,” the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) said in a statement, responding to contract proposals from Canada Post on Friday.
Canada Post’s new offers to the striking workers remove a previously offered signing bonus and proposes to reduce both the company’s workforce and the number of post offices that are “off limits” from closure.
The union said the company wants workers “to accept what they overwhelmingly rejected in a vote two months ago.”
“Canada Post says the situation is urgent but has used one stalling tactic after another to avoid serious negotiation. Postal workers can’t wait. The public can’t wait,” CUPW said.
The postal service said in a statement on Friday that the new offers “are within the limit of what the Corporation can afford while maintaining good jobs and benefits for employees over the long-term.”
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The offers to CUPW’s urban and rural bargaining units maintain much of what was presented as Canada Post’s “best and final offers” in May, including a compounded 13 per cent wage increase over four years.
CUPW said it “will have more to say when we have fully analyzed the offers.”
The company is also offering enhancements to benefits, pensions and vacation pay, along with a cost-of-living allowance that reflects unforeseen inflation.
However, a signing bonus of $500 to $1,000 per employee is “no longer on the table,” Canada Post said, “due to the company’s deteriorating financial situation.”
–with files from Global’s Sean Boynton
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