Postal disruption may come at first of the week -- or not

Negotiations are likely to go on through the weekend between Canada Post Corporation and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, but if they fail, mail service for magazines (and everything else) could be disrupted Monday or Tuesday by a strike or a lockout. It seemed likely that by end of day Friday, CUPW would give the required 72 hours notice for a strike, which could see a strike begin Monday night.
CPC said in a release today that it was "disappointed" with the CUPW's response to its latest offer. It continued to maintain that the union's demands would cost it $1.4 billion over the lifetime of a contract, though it refuses to explain how it calculated that figure. Among other things, CPC wants to reduce labour costs by reducing the salary of new employees from $24 an hour to $17.50, according to the union.
CUPW said Canada Post slightly increased its wage proposal in its latest counter offer but reneged on two aspects of their previous offer and dropped some other demands for rollbacks, but without addressing some of the union’s priority demands. For instance, says the union, it is demanding a 50% reduction in sick leave.
In an earlier bulletin, the union said CPC need to drop its "extreme" bargaining tactics.

For sixteen consecutive years CPC has been profitable. Yet, throughout the current negotiations, the Employer has taken extreme positions concerning the financial aspects of the negotiations. Instead of identifying problems and discussing solutions, they came with ultimatums.