'It feels like an attack'

Striking Canada Post workers in Kamloops are “distraught and upset” after waking Friday to news that they would very likely be ordered back to work by the federal government.

That’s what Aaron Arseneau, a Kamloops letter carrier and acting CUPW Local 758 president, told Castanet.

“It feels like an attack on all working people across the country fighting for better wages, a better quality of life, better working conditions,” he said.

“It’s another case of the government stepping in and saying, ’No, we don’t want to allow you to have a better life.’ Essentially, they’re protecting the people at the top, and meanwhile the people on the bottom are getting crushed and can’t afford to live.”

Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon on Friday referred the dispute between Canada Post and its employees to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, with the aim of ordering the nearly 55,000 workers back to work and extending their current contract until May 22 — as long as the board determines a deal is not within reach before the end of the year.

Arseneau said the news came as a surprise.

“None of us had this on our bingo card for how this would end,” he said. “Right now, we’re still trying to figure out exactly what’s going on.”

He said striking workers are preparing for the possibility of a return to work as soon as Monday. Bargaining would be paused until May to allow for a fulsome government investigation of the issue.

MacKinnon called the decision a creative solution by not sending the matter directly to binding arbitration — as the government did in the disputes at the railways and ports.

He said this doesn't mean a deal will be automatically in reach by May, but hoped the inquiry can show a path forward that works for both Canada Post and its workers.

"There are major structural changes in that industry that have to be accounted for," he said.

"There are workers' aspirations in that industry that have to be accounted for. Those have proved to be interests that are tough to reconcile. So I'm looking to try and triage those issues."

The postal workers' union denounced the decision, calling it "an assault" on the right to collective bargaining.

"This order continues a deeply troubling pattern in which the government uses its arbitrary powers to let employers off the hook, drag their feet, and refuse to bargain in good faith with workers and their unions," the Canadian Union of Postal Workers said in a statement.

Arseneau said Kamloops posties are still on the picket line until they get more clarity.

"I will say the lines are still strong," he said. "We're still motivated, but we are very frustrated with everything."

— with files from The Canadian Press