Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

canada post strike

Striking Kamloops postal workers denounce federal labour minister’s intervention

Dec 13, 2024 | 4:40 PM

KAMLOOPS — A nearly month-long work stoppage at Canada Post could see a change over the next month.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and Canada Post are set to meet with the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) this weekend, and the CIRB will determined if it’s possible for the two sides to come to an agreement before the new year.

The move stems from Friday’s (Dec. 13) move by federal Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon, who announced he would be referring the dispute to the CIRB. If the board feels negotiations won’t go anywhere, it would then order the 55,000 striking CUPW members back to work under their current collective agreement until May 2025.

Local postal workers feel the federal intervention violates their collective bargaining rights.

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MacKinnon also stated he’d appoint an industrial inquiry commission to look into the bargaining issues and come up with recommendations on how a new agreement can be reached.

“Best case is Canada Post is worried, and they do not want to have this investigation into the business practices and where all the money is going, through mismanagement, and they decide to negotiate and we can come up with a negotiated agreement in the next week or two weeks, three weeks, something like that,” says CUPW Local 758 acting president Aaron Arseneau. “That’s the best case scenario.”

Canada Post says in a statement it is reviewing details of the minister of labour’s announcement and is prepared to comply with the directive.