Another day of no mail deliveries in Kamloops.
Unionized postal workers in the city went back on the picket lines at 10 p.m. last night as part of national rotating strikes.
Local Canadian Union of Postal Workers Vice President Patricia Knauss says she expects workers here to be out for 24 hours.
The federal government is now preparing to order an end to the strike action with back-to-work legislation which would impose a binding agreement on postal workers.
Knauss says for CUPW that’s not ideal.
“We’re not happy because we don’t know what it’s going to be. We’d rather have a negotiated deal than be forced back. We’d rather be able to talk to Canada Post and get a fair deal than be forced back into legislation. We have no idea what’s going to be forced on us,” Knauss says.
“The problem is, once they start asking the legislation, Canada Post stops negotiation. Because for them, they’d rather have us legislated back, so why would they want to negotiate? It sort of puts a barrier up between the two parties from doing the negotiation.”
The postal strike is into its fifth week across the country.
CUPW turned down an offer on Monday by Canada Post for a “cooling off period” in negotiations during the holidays, which came after Canada Post offered a new deal last week which the union didn’t accept.