Leaders of the union that represents Canada Post workers in Calgary say they aren’t happy with the prospect of the Canadian government stepping in to legislate them back to work.

On Wednesday, Federal Labour Minister Patty Hajdu said that Ottawa was planning to table legislation to force a deal between the two parties as early as Thursday night if the situation wasn’t resolved soon.

“We strongly encourage both sides to reach a deal and are prepared to table legislation if we do not see a resolution over the next few days, a step we do not take lightly,” she said in a statement.

The news comes as workers begin a fifth week of rotating strikes, labour action that could end up severely impacting the Christmas delivery season.

The ongoing dispute has resulted in a huge amount of undelivered mail, with hundreds of trailers backlogged in major centres across the country. Hadju says that the government order isn’t something that they want to do, but they don’t have many more options.

“You know that we’ve given notice to the House; we’re extremely serious. We really don't want to have to use back to work legislation, you've heard me say it time and again, I don't believe that's where the best deal can come from. But, having said that, this is a really busy time of year. People are relying on Canada Post to deliver packages, small and medium businesses are relying on Canada Post to have a profitable season and our economy needs Canada Post to be able to function in a smooth way.”

Labour leaders in Calgary walking the picket lines say they aren’t happy with the idea of the government coming into the equation and using the law to force an end to the labour action.

“We’re disappointed because we think the legislation basically takes away our right to collective bargaining away,” said CUPW Calgary spokesperson Robert Scobel. “Fundamentally, both sides are independent and should be able to figure this out on their own.”

He says that with Ottawa coming into play, Canada Post is getting ‘off the hook’ in terms of negotiations.

“Canada Post doesn’t need to bargain if they know the federal government can come in and do their dirty work for them.”

Scobel says that the negotiations between the union and Canada Post have been ongoing since the spring and if the company was serious about making a deal, they could have had one well before now.

“Like I said, they seem to be determined to let the government handle this situation instead of doing what they should be doing which is negotiating a fair contract with CUPW.”

The union is seeking more protection for younger and part-time workers who don’t have full safety benefits. They say that postal workers suffer five times more injuries than other federally-regulated workplaces.

Canada Post’s latest rejected offer included a ‘cooling off’ period of the strikes for the holiday season and a $1,000 one-time bonus for the 50,000 members to accept the offer.

Meanwhile, the federal government has brought in a team of mediators to negotiate a new deal, but Canada Post says it won’t be able to guarantee the timely delivery of any parcels, especially with the coming week that includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday, a period that typically has been the beginning of the busiest shipping period of the year.

Postal workers say they want to hang in as long as it takes, but if legislation comes up to force them back to work, they’ll have to follow that order, or quit their job.

(With files from Mark Villani and the Canadian Press)