Postal workers across Windsor-Essex are preparing for a strike.
Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers took to the streets at the Walker Road processing plant on Friday in an information picket.
President of CUP-W local 630 Phil Lyons says one of the main issues in the negotiations is overtime.
According to Lyons, a clause in the current contract allows for employees to work up to 60 hours a week. The union argues that takes a toll on the health and family of workers.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers represents 480 mail carriers in the Windsor area.
They have been without a contract since December 2017.
Both parties remain at the bargaining table.
Should a deal not be reached by September 26, a work stoppage could take place.
“We don't really know if it would be a rotating strike or full blown strike if it's a lockout we really have no idea what Canada Post would do,” says Lyons. “If it's rotating it would slow things down a bit but it wouldn't bring everything to a standstill.”
CUP-W also celebrated an arbitrator's ruling, which will see rural postal workers across the country paid nearly the same as urban workers.
It amounts to a 25 percent pay increase for rural workers, including those in Essex County, plus additional benefits.
Not including benefits, the pay increase amounts to as much as $13,000 annually, retroactive to the beginning of 2016.
"We are ecstatic," says Lyons. “It’s one of the biggest wins in CUP-W's history. We have never believed that you should have workers going the same job with a big disparity in pay and benefits."
The union says eight thousand rural workers are mostly women, and have been paid significantly less than their co-workers.
