A temporary staff member made permanent with Canada Post, Lloydminster, has been returned to temporary status after about two weeks.
This is as contract talks with the workers’ union faltered, and workers have been on the picket line since Nov. 15. The Lloydminster worker had been given a permanent job after eight months of being temporary.
Across the country, Canada Post has started layoffs and the removal of the permanent job post has come as workers have been protesting outside of the main Canada Post office in downtown Lloydminster.
Canada Union of Postal Workers local representative Frank Trach says the worker was downgraded even though the position they are filling is for someone on long-term leave.
On Wednesday, Nov. 27, talks involving the federally appointed mediator broke down with the federal labour minister noting that the two sides were “too far apart on critical issues for mediation to be successful at this time.”
While Steven MacKinnon has said that the federal government won’t send the dispute to binding arbitration, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce is calling on the federal government to step in saying that the fallout from the strike is exacerbated in rural and northern communities where there are no alternatives to the Canada Post delivery system.
