Ottawa moves to end postal disruption

OTTAWA—The Harper government is hoping the threat of back-to-work legislation will spur a negotiated end to the postal dispute that has stopped mail delivery nationwide.

Declaring the two sides have had an “ample amount of time” to reach a settlement, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt said she was ready to force an end to the work stoppage at Canada Post using legislation she introduced Monday.

Under the proposed law, an arbitrator would choose between the final offer from management or the union’s final offer, a scenario Raitt conceded could leave one side on the losing end.

“That’s the danger of asking Parliament to settle your dispute,” she said. “Your dispute should be settled at the table between the parties who know the issues the best.”

Still, Raitt continues to hold out hope for a negotiated deal after getting Denis Lemelin, head of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and Canada Post CEO Deepak Chopra together on a conference call Monday.

“I encouraged them to look at each other’s offers and to narrow the dispute if they could to find a deal — and if they couldn’t, if the issues were too big, to find their own process,” Raitt told reporters.

The back-to-work legislation could take several days to become law, in part because of opposition from New Democrats, who accuse the Conservatives of meddling in collective bargaining.

“Why is the government interfering in these negotiations, and trampling on collective bargaining?” New Democrat MP Yvon Godin asked in Question Period.

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Source: Toronto Star