OTTAWA—Labour Minister Lisa Raitt told The Globe and Mail today that she is seriously considering back-to-work legislation in the postal dispute now that Canada Post's lockout has brought nation-wide postal service to a halt.

“You cannot have the Canadian public captive to either wanting their mail or their air service while these guys figure out their pensions,” the minister said, referring to the situations at both the post office and Air Canada, where counter and sales workers are on strike.

Raitt is under a tight deadline, because the House of Commons is scheduled to rise for the summer break next week on June 23.

The National Association of Major Mail Users (NAMMU) has called on the mailing industry to put pressure on Raitt to solve the postal crisis. NAMMU earlier estimated that at least 15,000 jobs in the mailing industry (outside of Canada Post) had been lost because uncertainty about postal service had forced mailers to cancel or delay projects.

Minister Raitt can be reached via email at Raitt.l@parl.gc.ca. NAMMU stresses that "important points are layoffs and loss of business — the economic impact."