Delivery company Purolator is applying to Quebec Superior Court to seek an injunction that would prevent Canada Post employees from obstructing its trucks, arguing that it has nothing to do with the ongoing labor dispute and that important deliveries were delayed.
Posted at 6:19 p.m.
According to the document filed in Court, around forty people wearing coats and accessories from the Postal Workers’ Union (CUPW) formed a picket line Monday morning at the Purolator distribution center in Montreal, in the borough of Saint- Laurent, delaying certain deliveries.
“Defendants’ tactic is to prevent vehicles from crossing the picket lines they form while they stand in front of and lean on the vehicles, preventing, obstructing or delaying entry and/or exit from the Establishment”, we can read in the document.
These maneuvers, which would have taken place between 5:30 a.m. and 8 a.m., would have caused “several significant delays”, particularly for the delivery of medical products to hospitals and medical clinics, alleges Purolator.
Acts of intimidation against a Purolator employee and customer were also allegedly committed.
Canada Post owns 91% of Purolator shares. The company employs some 500 people at its Montreal shipping center. Purolator salaried workers are represented by Teamsters Canada, a union separate from those of Canada Post, and are not in a labor dispute with their employer, it is emphasized in the request for an injunction.
Teamsters Canada also affirmed that its members would not process mailings bearing a postmark or coming from post offices.
It appears that other Purolator distribution centers have been targeted by actions by CUPW members across the country. An interim injunction order has been issued by the Ontario Superior Court, preventing obstruction of persons and vehicles seeking to enter and exit Purolator facilities in that province.
In Manitoba, CUPW representatives quoted in a report by CityNews Winnipeg explained that they were allowing delivery trucks and unionized Purolator employees to pass. Instead, they targeted contract employees without union cards, which they see as an attempt by Canada Post, the main owner of Purolator, to have the work of its striking union members done by other employees.
Remember that Canada Post union members have been on strike since November 15. The most recent news did not seem to indicate an imminent agreement between the employer and CUPW.
The Press was still awaiting information from CUPW at the time of publishing these lines.
