Yellowknife (July 25/03) - Although local postal workers are still hesitant to call it a done deal, eight months of negotiations between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) Wednesday led negotiators to reach a framework of understanding widely expected to lead to a tentative contract between the two sides.

Lynda Lefrancois, president of Yellowknife's CUPW Local 858, said progress was being made, but cautioned the framework agreement arrived at Wednesday morning is still short of a tentative deal.

"It's my understanding the framework has been done so it's getting down to the closing of it," said Lefrancois.

"But you don't know what might happen. I'm not sure if the I's have been dotted and T's have been crossed. I am optimistic but at the same, I am realistic."

Yellowknife postal workers remain out of uniform as a sign of protest over working without a contract.

"We have been out of uniforms until we have a collective agreement and they called me back and said, 'No, we're still out of uniform,'" she said.

Representatives of Canada Post and CUPW had slightly different views on which issues led to the eight-month negotiating marathon.

"The issues are the same as they've ever been: wages and pensions. From Canada Post's point of view, we need to take the costs down and we need flexibility to meet our needs," said John Caines, Canada Post's manager of media relations in Ottawa.

In Edmonton, CUPW local president Ramone Antipan, listed off a number of other negotiating concerns outside of wages and pensions, including worker safety and the retention of rural postal outlets.

"The corporation wants to review the numbers on retail outlets and we want to retain those outlets and even increase the number of outlets," said Antipan.

"This is a big issue, especially for rural communities, and Canada is one of the few systems in the country with a presence from coast to coast to coast, and we feel that's vital to maintaining a healthy community," he said.

Antipan acknowledged there has been some progress on the key issues, with respect to letter carriers.

"The letter carriers' work load is very high and they have one of the highest injury rate of any federal government worker.

"Another issue is that the corporation wants to do away with the half hour paid lunch for drivers," he added.

Sixteen people work with Canada Post in Yellowknife and there are CUPW locals in Hay River and Inuvik. Across the country, CUPW represents close to 48,000 Canada Post employees.