The rotating strikes by postal workers around the country will not impact local postal offices, according to Canada Post Corporation (CPC) director of media relations Anick Losier.
"The communities your paper serves do not have CUPW [Canadian Union of Postal Workers]-represented employees and they would continue to operate normally, should there be a rotating strike in the area," she said.
CUPW Sunshine Coast local 840 president Charlene Penner said the rotating strikes currently underway in Canada don't seem to be impacting local mail service this week.
"The mail is still moving quite nicely," she said.
Sunshine Coast mail carriers are part of the rural workers' union and under their current contract they are not permitted to strike. The urban postal workers were actively striking, however, on a rotating basis this week, which may impact local mail service should a letter or parcel be coming from one of those striking areas.
The strikes are the result of the inability of CUPW and CPC to come to an agreement on what the new CUPW contract should look like.
The CUPW wants to see wage increases for current employees as well as a cost of living allowance, equal pay for new employees, full job security for all regular employees and increases to benefits, among other things in the new contract.
But CPC maintains the CUPW's demands are too costly for the corporation, which is facing challenges with declining mail volumes, increasing competition and electronic substitutions to traditional mail.
Until a contract can be agreed upon, the CUPW will continue their rotating strike action, which hit Victoria, Moncton, Mont-real and Winnipeg already.
For up-to-date information on the strike, see CPC's website at www.infopost.ca/customer or CUPW's website at www.cupw.ca.
