By Rip Watson, Senior Reporter
This story appears in the June 20 print edition of Transport Topics.
Canada Post, the federal postal operator, locked out more than 48,000 workers last week after 12 days of partial strikes, prompting the labor minister to announce plans to end the service disruption through legislation.
The June 15 announcement by Labour Minister Lisa Raitt followed the June 14 lockout of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. Under Parliament’s procedures, legislation could not be voted on until June 17 at the earliest, after Transport Topics’ press time.
“We will be putting on notice legislation to restore mail delivery service for Canadians,” Raitt said.
The lockout began after union members refused to work for 24-hour periods in Montreal and Toronto, the country’s two largest cities. Canada Post’s service already had been reduced to three days a week in most areas before the June 14 lockout announcement.
As the situation intensified, package carriers continued to report increased volume.
UPS Director of Marketing Pat Stanghieri said the company continues to see an increase in volume, without saying how much.
“We are reviewing our operating plans on a daily basis to assure that all customers’ needs are met,” Stan-ghieri said, adding that the company is being cautious about adding business from new customers.
“We haven’t told customers we can’t take their business,” Stanghieri said, although the company is setting limits on added cargo to assure that it can be handled properly.
FedEx spokesman James Anderson said the company still had capacity to accept new business and serve its existing customers. He didn’t give details about volume changes.
“We are advising customers to plan ahead and we have contingency plans in place,” Anderson told TT.
Purolator, which is majority-owned by Canada Post, didn’t respond to requests for comment after the lockout began. The postal operator didn’t return calls requesting comment.
Paul Merrick, general manager of Purolator’s western operations, told TT before the lockout that the company was handling an increase in business “quite well,” and volumes were about 13% higher than they were before the unions began their action.
