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OTTAWA — Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said Friday that he is pausing the Canada Post work stoppage until spring, adding that small businesses who’ve lost revenues over peak holiday shopping season will not be compensated for losses.
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“This will make no one happy, who’s at the table,” MacKinnon said at a news conference near Parliament Hill. “But my job is to work for my bosses, or Canadians.”
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MacKinnon told reporters that he’d directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board to extend the terms of Canada Post’s existing collective agreement with mail carriers until May 25, calling the action a “time out” in lieu of binding arbitration.
“We’ve come up with what I think is an imaginative proposal to end the conflict in the near term and provide a path forward to both parties,” said MacKinnon
The labour minister said that there are no plans to compensate small and medium-sized businesses for losses incurred during the strike.
“The law does not envisage compensation for labour disputes we have,” said MacKinnon.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses estimates that the 29-day strike has cost small firms a total of $1.6 billion.
Mail service is expected to resume next week.
“This will be too late to salvage any of the Christmas holiday season for small businesses,” said CFIB President Dan Kelly on social media.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers said in a press release it “denounces in the strongest terms this assault on our constitutionally protected right to collectively bargain and to strike.”
National Post
rmohamed@postmedia.com
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