Canada Post proposes 2 month ‘cooling off’ period to stop strikes over the holidays

There’s no doubt that the holidays are the busiest mail time of the year.

With that in mind, Canada Post has given the Canadian Union of Postal Workers an interesting counter-proposal as rotating strikes across the country enter their fourth week.

The Crown corporation says it will agree with the CUPW’s proposal to bring another mediator into the ongoing talks, but with one condition.

It wants a “cooling off” period until the end of January to allow for the negotiations.

That would mean striking CUPW members would have to put down their picket signs over the holidays while talks are on.

There is some incentive to do so, as it could result in a special payment of up to $1,000 to CUPW members if there’s no labour disruption during the cooling period.

Rotating strikes have created a huge backlog of undelivered mail and even a halt on international shipping from some parts of the world.

This latest chapter of the saga comes after the union let a time-sensitive proposal from Canada Post pass.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a last-minute plea to the two sides to resolve their differences.

The ongoing strikes are affecting about 42,000 urban employees and 8,000 rural and suburban carriers.

With files from the Canadian Press.