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Canada Post reaches tentative agreement with postal union

Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have reached tentative agreements, avoiding a possible mail disruption.
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The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has issued 72-hour notice. If an agreement is not reached

Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have reached tentative agreements, avoiding a possible mail disruption.

The agreements were announced late Tuesday.

Labour Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk said the agreements were reached voluntarily. The postal union’s two bargaining units, for rural and urban workers, will each have to ratify the new terms,

On Aug. 25, the union issued 72-hour notice of job action, hours before its current strike mandate expired.

Then, early Tuesday, the two sides in the dispute agreed to extend mediation by 24 hours, continuing talks through the end of the day.

Canada Post and the union were at the bargaining table since Friday, with a special mediator appointed by the federal government.

During that time, the union announced job action plans twice. The first was in Alberta and the Northwest Territories and the second was in British Columbia and the Yukon Territory.

The job action would have affected 51,000 urban and rural postal workers.

The issues in this dispute were the implementation of a defined contribution retirement plan for new employees and the creation of new positions for evening and weekend deliveries.

Five years ago, in the summer of 2011, the union held rotating strikes until Canada Post imposed a lockout. The federal government passed back-to-work legislation, which was later deemed unconstitutional.