Business owners and residents across Canada have been urged by Canada Post management to be prepared should close to 40,000 unionized workers decide to engage in legal strike action in early July.

The conciliation process that started in April is continuing and the federal government remains confident that strike action can be averted before close to 40,000 employees with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) are in a legal strike position on July 2, said Mouktar Abdillahi, national spokesperson for Canada Post.

The conciliation process involves a federal conciliator and management from Canada Post and union representatives with CUPW (urban) and CUPW (rural) employees, said Abdillahi.

There are roughly 32,000 unionized workers employed by the urban postal workers and 7,000 employed by the rural union, he said.

“During the continuing conciliation process, there has been a guarantee of no work disruption by either of the unions,” he said. “We are continuing to work towards hopefully coming up with a deal.”

Negotiations on a new contract for both unions began back in late 2015, but broke off.

A conciliator was brought in as negotiations resumed in early April and have continued on a regular basis for almost three months, he said.

If a new deal isn’t worked out before July 2, the unionized workers would be in a legal strike position, although he would not speculate on whether strike action would start immediately, he said.

“After July 2, the provisions of the agreement to not have any work disruptions would no longer be in effect,” he said. “They would be in a legal strike position and a strike could happen.

“But our goal remains to continue working towards getting a deal done.”

While he wouldn’t speculate on what might happen if a new deal isn’t agreed to before July 2, Abdillahi said Canada Post has issued numerous public messages warning the public and business owners to make provisions should a strike take place.

“We want to make sure Canadians are as prepared as they possibly can be” in the event of a strike, he said.

If the close to 40,000 unionized workers do walk off the job, it would result “in a complete shutdown of postal services” across Canada, he said.

The last national strike at Canada Post took place in 2011 and lasted just over two months.

Anyone looking for more information, can visit the website at www.canadapost.ca.

“We are posting regular updates,” he said.

KEITH LACEY

Osoyoos Times