Canada Post and its unionized staff have agreed to set up a system in which workers would volunteer to move live animals, such as day-old chicks or bees, during a strike or lockout.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) said Tuesday it has a new agreement with the Crown corporation to move and deliver social assistance and pension cheques in case of a work stoppage.
Agreements have been reached between CUPW and Canada Post ahead of previous potential work stoppages, to deliver government payments to seniors and people with low incomes.
However, such an agreement that also includes commitments to “ensure that live animals are not trapped in the event of a strike or lockout” is new, the union said in a release.
“We don’t want the most vulnerable people in our society — pensioners and those living on low incomes — to suffer because postal workers might get locked out or forced out,” CUPW national president Mike Palecek said in the release.
“Nor do we want a repeat of what happened in 2011, when managers locked us out for two weeks, trapping animals such as bees and baby chicks in the system,” he said.
According to media reports during the 2011 lockout, postal staff were allowed into warehouses to track down such live cargo; a Canada Post spokesperson was quoted at the time as saying all such cargo, to the corporation’s knowledge, was found.
The new agreement, signed by representatives from the company and union and dated June 11, calls for Canada Post to “develop a mechanism for segregating or tracking live animals prior to a possible strike or lockout.”
