The superintendent of the Weyburn post office has his fingers crossed there will be no strike this week. "I hope it's resolved without a strike," he said.

Dennis Mulhall said Friday 22 of the 24 employees of the local post office, including letter carriers, are members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers that announced possible strike action as early as Thursday at midnight.

Mulhall and an assistant are the only two local employees not represented by CUPW. Union amalgamation in recent years means CUPW represents both inside and outside workers, he said.

Mulhall had not yet been informed of contingency plans in the event of a strike.

The national office of CUPW said in a news release that after seven months of negotiating a new collective agreement, the union and Canada Post have reached an impasse on several key issues.

"Instead of considering our proposals for innovative changes, Canada Post Corporation (CPC) is proposing significant rollbacks," said CUPW national president, Deborah Bourque.

She said a gap too wide to bridge still remained on more contentious issues such as letter carrier workload and injury rates, benefit cutbacks, severance pay removal, and wages and cost of living allowance.

"Nobody wants to go on strike," said Murray McKay, CUPW's representative in Weyburn, on Monday.

McKay said one of the biggest contentious issues is the injury rate among letter carriers in particular. Injury rates increased by 23 per cent between 1999-2002 because of the longer routes and heavier mail requirements, he said.

But Canada Post wants to increase both the volume and the length of the routes, he said.

McKay said strike action might be as simple as not taking flyers on the routes, or rotating strikes, or as significant as a nation-wide strike.

Canada Post said Friday it remains confident an agreement can be reached without a strike.

"This clearly is an attempt by the CUPW to increase pressure on the corporation at the bargaining table to get further concessions at the expense of the business community and employees' peace of mind," said Canada Post president André Ouellet in a news release.

"The union has to realize we can no longer sustain the costs associated with the current collective agreement and continue to meet the needs of our customers," he said.

Ouellet said the cost of Canada Post's benefits plan alone have risen by more than $270 million since 2000 and are projected to reach $850 million this year.

While Canada Post intends to continue to fund the vast majority of the benefits costs, it must find solutions to address future escalating costs to maintain the current level of benefits employees currently enjoy, he said. "Additional costs associated with this collective agreement cannot be sustained without placing job security at risk."

Ouellet warned there will be a strike if CUPW cannot work with Canada Post to negotiate an appropriate solution to this situation.

CUPW represents 48,000 members in rural and urban communities across Canada.

In the event of a strike, CUPW and Canada Post have agreed to deliver government pension and social assistance cheques.