MONTREAL – Montreal was the latest city to be hit by rotating strikes by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers on Monday after strikes in Hamilton, Ont., and Winnipeg.
The city is a major mail hub and service to a number of suburban communities outside Montreal is expected to be affected by the 24-hour strike.
Local union president Alain Duguay said the strategy behind rotating strike is to disrupt service as little as possible.
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“Our objective is that the population suffers from it as little as possible,” he said, adding the union’s battle is with Canada Post not its customers.
Postal service was disrupted over the weekend in Hamilton and on Friday in Winnipeg, but negotiations were still continuing on Monday to reach a settlement.
Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton said the Crown corporation is doing everything it can to maintain service across Canada but the longer the strike goes on, the more impact it’s going to have on operations.
“The more this goes on the farther the impact is going to be felt, which is really unfortunate because we’re negotiating at this time,” he said from Ottawa.
“We need to stop withdrawing service even if it’s in some communities because people rely on us. We need to stop giving our customers reasons to go somewhere else.”
Sick leave benefits, and starting wages and health and safety issues working with new equipment were sticking points for the union.
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