Protesters blocked the entrances to Canada Post’s main facility in Halifax Friday morning to show solidarity for employees who were legislated back to work earlier this week.
The group left about two hours later at 10 a.m., after police told them they were not allowed to block vehicles coming in and out of the plant, and said they would make arrests if protesters didn’t move.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) had held 37 days of rotating strikes across the country before back-to-work legislation was officially passed Monday and came into effect Tuesday.
READ MORE: Delivery backlogs to continue as Canada Post union calls for ‘civil disobedience’
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Danny Cavanagh, the president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, says people want to take a stand for collective rights because they’re unhappy with the imposed legislation.
“We’re here to make sure that we’re doing something to protect our rights under the Canadian Charter for fair and free bargaining,” he said.
“We’re out in solidarity. Of course, Nova Scotia isn’t immune to getting legislative pieces by our provincial government and of course the federal legislation will have detrimental effects on everybody right across the country.”
Similar protests have been held in other parts of the country in response to the back-to-work legislation.
In response, Canada Post tweeted that “individuals are illegally obstructing the movement of mail and parcels” at their Halifax plant. The Crown corporation said it will “continue to take appropriate action to address illegal activity” that affected their operations.
Canada Post indicated this week that Canadians can continue to expect delivery delays for the next several weeks.
— With a file from Dave Squires
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