Canada Post to continue delivery of CPP, other assistance cheques
Posted Jun 16, 2011 09:04:43 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – Some two million Canadians will find social assistance cheques in their mailboxes on Monday despite the ongoing dispute between Canada Post and its locked out employees that has left regular mail delivery in limbo.
The Crown corporation said Thursday _ a day after it locked out workers and suspend urban mail delivery across the country _ that the cheques will be delivered as scheduled June 20 under an agreement with the union representing the postal workers.
“Delivering during a work disruption is a huge challenge, but Canada Post is committed to delivering these important cheques to the Canadians who count on receiving them,” it said.
Included are CPP, Old Age Security, Veterans’ Affairs and Canada Tax Benefit cheques. Quebec’s Child Assistance, Pension and Income Security cheques as well as Alberta Pension cheques will also be delivered that day.
Those cheques will be delivered the same day the federal government plans to table legislation to force the locked out postal employees back on the job.
Canada Post workers staged a rally outside an east end postal facility, Thursday, to protest back-to-work legislation the federal government warned it may introduce to end the lockout if a deal is not reached.
About 200 employees gathered outside 280 Progress Avenue, near Kennedy Road and Highway 401, and many expressed their anger at being lockout out in the first place.
Many also said they hate the prospect of being legislated back to work.
A worker named Mark told 680News Canada Post simply doesn’t realize what employees do for the company.
“Union is not a dirty word, it’s just the middle class people putting their foot down and saying enough is enough,” he said. “You have to consider our livelihood and what we go through on a day-to-day basis to make this job work.”
Many of the locked out employees also showed up in uniform, holding placards and chanting. One of the signs read, “locked out but we want to deliver.”
John Cartwright, president of the Toronto Labour Council, is expected to be here, as well as local union heads.
“The message is we want a settlement we can live with and we want a negotiated settlement, we don’t want something forced down our throats, and that’s all we ask,” Canadian Union of Postal Workers’ representative George X. Tomaszewski told 680News earlier on Thursday.
The union has called the back-to-work legislation unnecessary and unproductive, and blamed Canada Post and its national lockout of employees for causing the public to be inconvenienced and forcing the government’s hand.
On Wednesday, CUPW president Denis Lemelin said Canada Post has been provoking its members and calls the lockout irresponsible.
“I think, for us, this decision from Canada Post to lock us out is really unacceptable,” Lemelin told reporters at a media conference on Wednesday.
Lemelin said that while the union gave 72 hour strike notice, the 48,000 workers were given no notice of the nationwide lockout.
“We know there is mail trapped in many facilities all over the country and that was the commitment of CUPW to deliver the mail but at the same time pressure Canada Post.” Lemelin said.
The union said they have offered to go back to work while a deal is hammered out, stating they want a negotiated settlement.
Canada Post said the labour dispute has already cost them $100-million.
Postal workers started rotating walkouts almost two weeks ago.
The federal government last legislated striking postal workers back to work in 1997.
