NORTH BATTLEFORD - Picketers hit the streets outside the post office in North Battleford again Monday in the fourth day of the national Canada Post workers strike that started Nov. 15.
Jason Hawkes, president of CUPW Local 706, said the union wants to see safer working conditions for letter carriers and the people who work in the back, unloading and loading trucks.
"We’re fairly short-staffed," he said. "The company tries to get as much as they can out of the workers, with minimal staffing, and the carriers are already being asked to be out on the street for longer days. Now, with the pre-sorted mail that Canada Post is trying to implement, it will just mean the letter carriers will be out on the street even longer. That’s a lot of wear and tear on a person’s knees and backs, and bodies.
"Along with health and safety, when we’re not properly staffed, a lot of the other employees are burdened with the extra responsibility of trying to get the work done of other employees that are sick or off, or injured. So, it just leads to more injuries, and with people being over-burdened with extra work to try to keep up when the company doesn’t staff properly."
Postal workers are also bargaining for higher wages.
"The employees are looking just to keep up with the times, along with the inflation rate across the country," Hawkes said. "The offer that we have received from the company was below the inflation rate. It’s just the way the cost of living is now in society; it’s just not enough to be able to get by with people with families, and so on."
Hawkes said Postal workers are hoping the strike is over as soon as possible.
"We haven’t really heard anything, but we’ll continue to be out here as long as it takes, so that the company will get the message."
Joel McKee, vice-president of CUPW Local 706, also noted employees are short-staffed as there are not enough workers to do the work.
"With our depot and a lot of our depots being short-handed, it’s putting wear and tear on the workers," he said. "We can always get over time and this and that, but that takes us away from our family life... It’s kind of bringing us down, and we need to do something about it."
The union is also concerned about changes to benefits, and the employee pension plan.
"It's not a guaranteed thing for people who retire, which kind of scares people," McKee said.
He hopes the strike will end soon, but he doesn't know how long it will take.
"They are still trying to negotiate at this moment," McKee said. "They have been negotiating for the last year honestly. So, It could be ended tomorrow [Tuesday]; it could be another few weeks. It could go on for who knows how long for."
"We want to get back to work so that we can just get everyone’s packages and mail to them, just like we want."
A total of about 55,000 postal workers represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) have been on a nationwide strike since Nov. 15, according to a statement from the CUPW.
The CUPW said it has been bargaining with Canada Post for about a year on its contract, "with little progress."
"Canada Post had the opportunity to prevent this strike, but it has refused to negotiate real solutions to the issues postal workers face every day. Instead, Canada Post left us no choice when it threatened to change our working conditions and leave our members exposed to layoffs," the statement read.
"Our demands are reasonable: fair wages, safe working conditions, the right to retire with dignity, and the expansion of services at the public post office. Postal workers are proud to serve their communities, and we want to do the job we love. A strike is a last resort. We still believe we can achieve negotiated collective agreements, but Canada Post must be willing to resolve our new and outstanding issues."
