OTTAWA, June 13 (UPI) -- Negotiations made little progress to end the rolling postal workers strike in Canada, a union official said.
"We continue to meet, but there's not a lot of progress," said Jeff Callaghan, national director for the Atlantic region of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
Among the issues under discussion, Canada Post is pushing to reduce wages for new workers to start at $18 per hour, down from the current $23 per hour, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Monday.
"For a crown corporation that's very profitable, they shouldn't be getting into a cheap-labor system," Callaghan said.
The union says Canada Post has been profitable for 16 years, but Canada Post said the CUPW, which represents 50,000 workers, is using inaccurate numbers and is "out of touch."
In addition, "The uncertainty caused by seven months of negotiating and more than a week of union strike activity is hurting our customers, our employees and the business," Canada Post said in a statement.
"We cannot support any effort by the union to delay this process further or entertain costly and unrealistic demands," the statement said.
The strike action has been organized on a rotating business, so workers at various areas go on strike, but the entire postal service is not shut down all at once.
