Local postal workers are ready to hit the picket lines.
According to Phil Lyons, President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Windsor Local 630, strike votes are being held this week to send a strong message to Canada Post.
CUPW and Canada Post began contract negotiations late last year and are currently in a 60 day conciliation period which is set to expire September 4.
Conciliation is followed by a 21 day cooling off period and if a deal isn't reached in the meantime, workers could be on strike by September 26.
Lyons says workers could be on strike by September 26.
"We're in a 60 day conciliation period that ends September 4 and then there's a 21 day cooling off period and then one minute past midnight on the 26th, Canada Post could either lock us out or we could be on strike."
An information picket outside the Tecumseh Rd. East postal office. September 11, 2017 (Photo by AM800's Teresinha Medeiros)
Lyons says the union will have a clear mandate by September 9.
"We're frustrated because there's been well over a hundred meetings so far and there's not very much signed off. The votes are going on right around the country and each local conducts them separately and then they're all tallied up. We get the results around the 9th of September."
He says workers are frustrated with the lack of progress at the bargaining table.
"There were a lot of issues left from 2012 and 2016 and we're really on a roll right now with the parcels. We don't want anything to interfere with that. So we're hopeful that we'll get it done by the 25th of September and we can all move on."
The strike votes take place Thursday at 7:30am, 1:30pm, 5pm and 6:30pm at the Unifor union hall on Turner Rd. — ballots will then be counted across Canada with results expected to be known by September 9.