The first two games of the 2015 Women’s College World Series Championship Finals between the defending national champion/No. 1 Florida and No. 3 Michigan (best-of-three game series) have resulted in the most-watched WCWS Championship Finals Game 1 ever (Monday, June 1) and college softball’s highest overnight rating in eight years (Game 2 on Tuesday, June 2). Additionally, with Florida’s 3-2 victory in Game 1 and  Michigan’s 1-0 win in Game 2, the Gators and Wolverines will play just the fourth decisive WCWS Championship Finals Game 3 (Wednesday, June 3, 8 p.m. ET on ESPN) in history.  The 2015 WCWS Championship Finals are coming off an ESPN record-setting 2015 Women’s College World Series bracket round (May 28 – May 31).

Defending National Champion/No. 1 Florida vs. No. 3 Michigan is Most-Watched WCWS Championship Finals Game 1 Ever

2015 WCWS Finals Game 2: College Softball’s Highest Overnight in Eight Years

Only Fourth Ever Decisive WCWS Championship Finals Game 3 Tonighton ESPN (8 p.m. ET)

The 2015 WCWS Championship Finals Game 1 was watched by 1,542,000 average viewers (off a 1.0 rating), topping the 2009 WCWS Championship Finals Game 1 (Washington vs. Florida) for the most-watched WCWS Championship Finals Game 1 ever (1,412,000 viewers). Tuesday night’s Game 2 garnered a 1.2 overnight rating, resulting in college softball’s highest overnight rating since the 2007 WCWS Championship Finals Game 2 (Tennessee and Arizona)  which earned  a 1.4 overnight. Combined, the 2015 WCWS Championship Finals Games 1 and 2 has averaged a 1.1 overnight, tying it for the second most-watched WCWS Championship Finals Game 1 and Game 2 on record (since 2007).

Additionally, 2015 WCWS Championship Finals Game 1 audience and Game 2 overnight are up 37% (1,126,000 viewers) and 33% (0.9 overnight rating), respectively, compared to the 2014 WCWS Championship Finals Game 1 and Game 2 which featured Alabama vs. Florida.

Please note: Only overnight rating (and not audience numbers) were available for Game 2 when this release was issued

Top Markets (Combined Games 1 and Games 2)

Detroit is the highest-rated local market with a 3.7 rating, followed by Birmingham (3.2), Knoxville (2.9), Jacksonville & Oklahoma City (2.6), Orlando (2.5), Tampa (2.1), Nashville (2.0) and Dayton (1.9).

WatchESPN

The 2015 WCWS Championship Finals Game 1 and Game 2 (combined) has experienced a 120% growth in average minute audience and a 84% spike in total unique viewers on WatchESPN compared to the 2014 WCWS Finals Game 1 and 2.

2015 Women’s College World Series Championship Finals Game 3 (8 p.m. ET, ESPN)

With only the fourth decisive Game 3 to be played tonight, both Florida and Michigan are looking to make history. The Gators would be just the third team to win back-to-back national championships joining UCLA and Arizona – who have each done it multiple times.

Michigan, also going for its second national championship, is trying to duplicate what it did in 2005 – rebound to win both Game 2 and Game 3 after dropping Game 1. In fact, in the other two years (2007, 2012) which a Game 3 was needed, both times the winner of Game 2 went on to win Game 3 (Arizona and Alabama).

— Courtesy of ESPN

Battlefield V won’t include microtransactions at launch, EA DICE has announced. Microtransactions will be added post-launch using a paid in-game currency called Battlefield Currency, but DICE promises they will only be used for cosmetic items.

“We want players to get hands-on experience with their Company [the name for players’ collections of items], the progression system, and earning Company Coin before introducing premium currency,” DICE said. “Balanced rock-paper-scissors gameplay has always been the foundation of the Battlefield series, and our belief is that real-world money should not enable pay-to-win or pay-for-power.”

Company Coin, an in-game currency you earn solely through play, can be spent on weapon and vehicle upgrades, as well as cosmetic items like weapon skins. Battlefield Currency, acquired with real money, only gives access to “specific cosmetic items for your Company.”

We already knew that Battlefield V would drop the series’ usual premium pass, so EA DICE appears to be going all in on keeping the playing field level both at launch and beyond with its content model.

DICE also outlined the progression system, which is split into five categories and focuses on in-game rewards:

• Career rank: Overall progression. Increasing your rank earns you Company Coin and new vehicle unlocks.
• Class rank: Unlocks new combat roles and weapons for the four classes as you level up.
• Weapon rank: Weapons level up individually allowing you purchase new modifications.
• Vehicle rank: Like weapons, vehicles level up individually to unlock new modifications.
• Chapter rank: Tied to Tides of War. Full details haven’t been revealed.

Battlefield V launches November 20 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. We recently learned that its battle royale mode won’t arrive until March 2019. For more on Battlefield V, check out our hands-on preview of War Stories, the single-player campaign.

Steven Petite is a freelancer writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter @steven_petite.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Tufts University starts the year where it left off after winning its second straight national championship last May, as the unanimous choice atop the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division III Top 25 softball rankings.

The Jumbos went 5-1 in the NCAA Championship at Texas-Tyler’s Suddenlink Field for an overall 13-1 postseason run en route to an overall 47-4 mark in 2014, and received all eight first-place votes to start 2015. Tufts spent nine of 13 weeks in the top spot in 2014, including four straight weeks to start the year and then the final three rankings.

While prolific slugger Jo Clair has graduated and is now a Tufts assistant coach, fellow first team NFCA All-American and co-Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Championship Allyson Fournier returns to the circle for her senior season with the Jumbos. In all, Tufts returns seven starters, including junior shortstop Christina Raso, the 2014 New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Defensive Player of the Year, and sophomore first baseman Cassie Ruscz, the NESCAC Rookie of the Year.

Division III runner-up Salisbury (44-5 last season) and fifth-place finisher East Texas Baptist (45-10) are solid choices in the No. 2 and 3 spots following stellar 2014 campaigns. Salisbury spent two weeks at No. 1 last season and vaulted back to the clear second choice in the poll to finish the season after dealing Tufts its first postseason loss since 2012 in the first game of the best-of-3 NCAA Championship Series.

The Sea Gulls’ lone losses in Tyler came in the final two games to Tufts, including a 6-0 loss in 14 innings in the second game of the Championship Series that was scoreless for the first 13.

Rounding out the top five are Wisconsin-Whitewater (39-13) and Christopher Newport (38-8). The No. 4 Warhawks tied for third with 13th-ranked St. Thomas (44-9) at the NCAA Championship, while Christopher Newport had its path to Texas blocked by Salisbury in the Super Regionals.

The other three teams that were in the final eight at the NCAA Championship last season are also ranked. Trine (43-6) is ranked sixth, while Rochester (32-14) is 10th and Montclair State (42-8) is 11th.

The NFCA Division III Top 25 Poll is selected by eight NCAA Division III head coaches representing the eight NCAA regions. Final 2014 records are listed, with first-place votes in parentheses.

For the complete poll, click here

During a screening of Avengers: Infinity War on Wednesday night, the directors of the film – the Russo brothers – confirmed that Loki did in fact die in Infinity War.

Peter Sciretta from Slash Film tweeted updates from a live Q&A after the screening.

“The Russo’s were asked about a fan theory that Bruce Banner is really Loki in disguise. They answered. That ‘Loki is dead,'” Sciretta tweeted.

Despite many fans thinking (or hoping) that the Prince of Asgard was using magic once again, Loki is in fact dead. He will, however, return in Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+ that was announced earlier this month.

Sciretta also tweeted about Anthony and Joe Russo detailing the secrecy of the script for Avengers: Infinity War, saying that no one had the script in its entirety.

“No one actually had the entire script. People who were in the film more than others had access to their scenes and knew more than others. There was also fake scenes and redacted scenes to protect secrecy.”

“An example of a fake scene The Russo Brothers wrote to keep Infinity War secrecy, Gamora threw Thanos off the cliff in the Soul Stone sequence. I’m not even sure if they are kidding,” Sciretta said.

The Russo brothers also said that Guardians 3 being put on hold had no impact on the approach for Avengers 4, as they had already finished shooting at that point. They also talked about stopping by the set of Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian, and Sciretta noted they said the show is, “being shot in a way unlike any other tv show.”

For more on what we can expect from Avengers 4, stay tuned to IGN. In the meantime, read up about how Joe Russo said Chris Evans is not actually done playing Captain America, how Stan Lee did already film his cameo for Avengers 4, and how Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel film will fit into the universe before Avengers 4.

Jessie Wade is a news writer for IGN and could write about Avengers goodness all day. Chat with her on Twitter @jessieannwade and follow her on Instagram.

The traditional, permanent full-time job is dying a slow death in Canada, and precarious work in the new “gig economy” is taking its place. This story is part of Precariously Taxed, a HuffPost Canada series that looks at how gig economy and contract workers can optimize their finances when it comes to tax time.

So you’ve got a part-time office job during the day, you’re driving an Uber in the evenings, and maybe you’re even renting a room in your home on Airbnb to pick up some extra cash.

Welcome to the world of work in Canada today. According to soon-to-be-published research carried out for TurboTax, fully 15 per cent of adult Canadians today have a side gig, and more than half of them — 55 per cent — landed that side gig within the past two years.

All of a sudden, we are living in a world of precarious work and part-time gigs. And for many out there, that reality means saving for retirement is just out of the picture. It’s not a part of the agenda. Which is a shame, because starting up a long-term savings plan early on in life can make an enormous difference in how well you live later on.

Save what you can — it will add up

When you start saving is one of the big determining factors in how wealthy you are later in life, said Laurie Campbell, CEO of Credit Canada.

If you start at 25 as opposed to 45, “my goodness, this is where you can excel,” she said. The savings “will grow exponentially over the 40 years if you work. It’s a benefit to (save some money) even in lean times.”

Watch: Canada’s federal taxes are changing this year. Here’s what you need to know. Story continues below.

Warren Orlans, an advisor and blogger with tax software company TurboTax, offers an illustration of just how much of a difference saving early on in life can make.

Assuming a typical rate of return, someone who starts saving for retirement at age 25 will have $900,000 in savings at age 65, provided they put aside $600 a month.

But someone who starts at age 45 will end up with just $600,000 at age 65 — and only if they save way more money, some $1,500 a month.

Simply put, when you start saving can determine whether or not you can afford to retire at all.

“Anything you can do to invest which is low risk, to preserve your money, is something you should be doing,” Orlans said. He cautioned not to “put all your eggs in one basket” but noted the important thing is to save.

RRSPs may not be right for you

The problem is, the financial instruments out there designed to help people save for retirement or education or anything else weren’t designed for gig workers and all the precarious jobs that are coming to dominate our economy.

They were meant for the traditional worker with a permanent, full-time job (remember those?). And for many low-income, part-time or temporary workers, the keystone of Canadians’ private retirement savings — the Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) — may not be right.

That’s because of how it’s designed. The money put into an RRSP is exempt from taxes in the year you squirrelled that money away. For this reason, putting money into an RRSP can get a salaried worker a large tax return the following spring. But if you’re an independent worker responsible for paying your own taxes, an RRSP contribution will only lower what you owe next spring.

That can help in the short term, but you might end up paying more money in taxes in the end. If you are earning a low income today, your tax break for an RRSP contribution will be relatively small. If your income is higher in retirement — you may be drawing on an employer pension, as well as CPP and Old Age Security — you might pay higher taxes at that time than you would have today.

“People are pushed into products that may not always benefit them,” Campbell said in an interview.

While an RRSP may not always be wrong for people in precarious work, many low-income earners should be looking at the TFSA instead — the Tax-Free Savings Account, Campbell and other personal finance experts suggested. While money in those accounts won’t get you a tax refund like an RRSP, the money you earn on those investments won’t be taxed, and when you take it out of your account, it won’t be counted as income for tax purposes — after all, you already paid taxes on that money before you put it in a TFSA.

And the other thing about a TFSA is that, unlike an RRSP, you can withdraw at any time without incurring a penalty. (The government charges a hefty “withholding tax” of up to 30 per cent on money you take out of an RRSP before age 65.)

And that makes the TFSA a much better savings instrument for someone in precarious work — who may in fact be able to keep their savings through to retirement, but could just as easily need money much sooner to make it through lean times.

The TFSA “is a huge blessing for low income people, and that’s something that is not being stressed enough,” Campbell said.

You are currently limited to putting no more than $6,000 into a TFSA in a given year, but the limit is cumulative over the years you’re in the workforce, so you may have tonnes of room from previous years if you’ve been in the workforce for some time.

But HOW do I actually save?

If you’re living hand-to-mouth in the precarious work economy, you may assume you don’t have enough to save for the long term. In many cases, you’d be wrong, but to realize it requires a change of mindset, Orlans says.

“You have to budget and be fiscally responsible.You have to cut a little now to take into consideration that you want to be alive for a long time,” he said.

Prepare for “unstable” earnings

Many people in gig-economy work or seasonal work, such as Uber drivers or fishers, will see much larger paycheques at some point in the year than at other times. Don’t make the mistake of blowing all your money when the cheques are fat. Make sure you set aside money to get through the lean times. If you don’t do that, you won’t stand much of a chance of saving for the long term.

Prepare for taxes

The first thing is to make sure you have saved enough for the tax hit you’re going to face in the spring, Orlans says. If you don’t have deductions taken off your paycheque, you need to set aside a percentage of your income to hand over to Canada Revenue — that’s taxes plus deductions like Canada Pension Plan contributions.

There are online tax calculators that can help you figure out how much that should be.

Equally important: File your taxes on time, because penalties and late fees to Canada Revenue are just a waste of your money. The tax-filing deadline for self-employed Canadians is June 15, but any money you owe is due earlier, on April 30. That’s when the CRA will start counting interest on what you owe. So do your taxes before April 30, even if you’re self-employed.

Maximizing your tax deductions is very important — it could actually get you the cash you need to put money towards savings. Everything from car expenses to some medical expenses can be deducted from your taxes. If you suffer from celiac disease, you can actually deduct the additional cost of buying gluten-free alternatives.

Tax preparation software like UFile, H&R Block and TurboTax can take you through the available deductions. Don’t gloss over this part if you’re self-employed.

Watch out for fees

When choosing a retirement savings product like an RRSP or TFSA, many people gloss over the fees their bank charges for those products. After all, it’s just one or two per cent, so who cares?

It can actually make all the difference, because that small percentage is charged again and again, year after year. Let’s say your retirement portfolio earns 5 per cent per year. If you pay a 1 per cent fee, you lose a fifth of your gains every year. If you pay 2 per cent, you lose two-fifths to fees — a whopping 40 per cent of the gains from your savings go to the bank.

So please, pay attention to fees.

And finally, institute a simple principle: No matter how little wiggle room you have, put something — anything — aside every year.

“Even if it’s a small amount, it all adds up at the end of the day,” Orlans said.

When it comes to having healthy teeth and gums, we all know the rituals. Brush twice a day and for some, floss and use oral rinses. These are the gold standard to keep our teeth and gums bright and strong. However, even with these recommendations in place, nearly a quarter of Canadian children and over half of the nation’s teenagers suffer from cavities and at least a third of all Canadians require some type of dental treatment.

Advances in oral health are for the most part few and far between. After all, the time, money, and effort required to develop a treatment can be almost too much to bear. Usually, newer treatments are based on unexpected discoveries linked to much larger goals.

The best example in this case is the use of xylitol to prevent cavities. At the time, the molecule was being tested as a sugar substitute. But when children who were using this sugar seemed to have fewer cavities, the oral health world took notice. Now xylitol is recognized by Health Canada as a means to prevent tooth decay.

Another interesting example is the bacterium, Streptococcus salivarius. It was initially described in 1937 but was thought to be just one of many species of bacteria in the mouth. But in the 1990s, researchers discovered the bacterium competed against species known to cause cavities. This led to the development of gums and tablets used to improve oral health, many of which are also approved by Health Canada.

Now, thanks to an American group of researchers, we may have another oral health breakthrough in the making. They have unveiled a molecule with the potential to keep our mouths healthy. Not surprisingly, much like xylitol and salivarius, this particular chemical is already known in the research community but for an entirely different reason.

It’s called ferumoxytol and while it may not be a household word in Canada, for anyone who has suffered from iron deficiency, also known as anemia, it is one of the more promising treatments. The molecule is also one of the best examples of how we can use nanotechnology to improve health. The chemical comes in the form of a nanoparticle, containing an iron core and a sugar coating. Once injected, it quickly goes to work to release the iron such that it raises the level in the blood.

But this mechanism wasn’t the reason the authors found this chemical so intriguing. Instead, the team wanted to focus on a rather strange phenomenon known as the nanozyme effect. Somehow, when the nanoparticles enter a biological environment, they cause biochemical reactions usually reserved for proteins known as enzymes. In the case of ferumoxytol, the biochemical reactions lead to the production of bacteria-killing free radicals.

With this information in hand, the group wanted to see if they could use ferumoxytol to generate free radicals in the mouth to eliminate the bacteria that cause plaque. But before they could get to that stage, they first needed to test the product in the lab to see if it could actually kill plaque bacteria. Not surprisingly, that went incredibly well. The molecule generated the free radicals and eliminated the plaque bacteria.

The next step was to see if the killing action could prevent tooth erosion that leads to cavities. Again, they did this testing in the lab using enamel collected and cultured from human teeth. As expected, the nanoparticle treatment did the job effectively and the tooth’s natural protective coating was maintained.

With these results confirmed, the team believed the molecule was ready for the ultimate test in a living animal. They chose a well-known rat model used to mimic dental damage in children. Baby rats were fed a diet rich in sugar to increase the chances for cavities. They also were exposed to plaque-causing bacteria in high enough concentrations to ensure the teeth would erode. Once the bacteria had started to wear away at the rat’s teeth, it was time to put ferumoxytol to the test.

The nanoparticle was added in the same way as we would use mouthwash. The animals were treated twice a day for three weeks, about the same amount of time as a human might go through a bottle. When the experiment was completed, the teeth were inspected for any signs of damage.

The results were beyond promising. The use of the chemical reduced the presence of any damage by half. But that wasn’t the best part. The treatment had completely eliminated both moderate and severe damage of the teeth. In essence, they had found a way to prevent cavities.

For the authors, ferumoxytol passed all the tests with flying colours. The molecule formed the free radicals, killed the bacteria, and prevented enamel erosion just as they had hoped. The results also opened the door for similar experiments in humans. In light of the already approved status of the nanoparticle, these tests could come sooner than later.

It may still be a few years before you see ferumoxytol in your dentist’s office but the potential to reduce the rather high rates of cavities in children and teenagers is quite high. When this happens, we’ll have another weapon in the fight against tooth decay. Until then, just make sure to keep brushing those teeth twice a day and make that visit to the dentist at least twice per year.

Have you been affected personally by this or another issue? Share your story on HuffPost Canada blogs. We feature the best of Canadian opinion and perspectives. Find out how to contribute here.

The latest message to softball fans anxiously awaiting a decision from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on the sport’s status for the 2020 Tokyo Games seems to be hurry up and wait.

The Associated Press reported early Friday that the final vote on the 2020 list of sports won’t come until the IOC meeting on the eve of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, which is a full year longer than had been anticipated. IOC Vice President John Coates told The Associated Press that the original plan to have a decision by this July was “too ambitious.”

“We understand the difficult decision the IOC faces in regards to the 2020 Olympic program agenda,” ASA/USA Softball Executive Director Craig Cress said. “The decision is important to many different sports. Softball and baseball have worked incredibly hard to get to this point of the selection process. ASA/USA Softball will continue to promote and work with all entities in our pursuit of being reinstated into the Olympic program.”

“As much as we would love to see a reinstatement in a quicker time frame, we respect and honor the timeline established by the IOC and look forward to the continued support of softball and baseball internationally.”

International Softball Federation (ISF) Honorary President Don Porter, who worked diligently during his 26-year run as head of that organization to get softball on the Olympic program, then saw softball appear in four Games before it was shockingly voted out in 2005, said via email he still feels good about softball’s chances. 

“While disappointed with the delay, we are optimistic that the decision will be positive for baseball and softball for Tokyo 2020,” Porter said.

Softball — part of a combined bid with baseball to return to the Olympic program for the first time since both were cut after the 2008 Beijing Games —is a favorite among the sports vying to be added, due to Japan’s great love for the sport and the fact that quality stadiums and successful leagues are already in place for both baseball and softball there. Among the sports competing with baseball and softball for a coveted spot on the 2020 Olympic slate include billiards, karate, rock climbing, skateboarding, squash and surfing.

At its December meeting in Monaco, the IOC approved President Thomas Bach’s 40-point “Olympic Agenda 2020” reform package that allows for a more events-based system and abolishes the cap of 28 sports for the Summer Games. That clears the way for host cities to propose additional events for their particular Games, so long as the number of competing athletes remains roughly the same. The group also approved a new bidding process aimed at reducing costs for competing cities that would allow hosts to stage events in multiple cities, or even outside their country, if feasible.

Coates told The Associated Press that Tokyo organizers will receive assessment criteria for the interested sports by the end of April and will have until September to formulate a list of sports they’d like to add to the program for 2020. To that end, Tokyo organizers have created a panel to consider new sports and will have their first meeting this week.

The Olympics will contested in Japan in 2020 for the fourth time in history, and for the second time in its capital city of Tokyo. The Winter Olympics have been held in Sapporo (1972) and Nagano (1998), while the Summer Games were previously in Tokyo in 1964.

OTTAWA — Mail service will resume all across the country at noon Tuesday after the Senate passed legislation ordering an end to five weeks of rotating strikes by postal workers.

Royal assent was granted late Monday shortly after senators approved Bill C-89 by a vote of 53-25. Four senators abstained.

The government had deemed passage of the bill to be urgent due to the economic impact of continued mail disruptions during the busy holiday season. It rushed the bill through the House of Commons last week.

But senators, after holding a special sitting Saturday to debate the bill, insisted on taking a little more time to reflect on the constitutionality of stripping postal workers of their right to strike.

Special sitting

They held another special sitting Monday and only put the bill to a vote after more than five hours of additional debate.

“I thought the extra time we took was valuable and was a demonstration of how the Senate should be reviewing government bills,” said Sen. Yuen Pau Woo, leader of the independent senators’ group.

Sen. Peter Harder, the government’s representative in the Senate, urged senators earlier Monday not to delay any further.

“I’m gratified that after two days of intense debate the Senate did what, in my view, is the right thing and passed this legislation,” he said after the vote.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers issue a statement declaring that it is “exploring all options to fight the back-to-work legislation.”

“Postal workers are rightly dismayed and outraged,” said CUPW national president Mike Palecek. “This law violates our right to free collective bargaining under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

Some senators — independents, Liberal independents and even some Conservatives — agreed with that assessment and voted against the bill.

But the majority either disagreed or concluded that it’s up to the courts, not senators, to rule on constitutionality.

An amendment by independent Sen. Murray Sinclair, who proposed delaying implementation of the back-to-work order for at least seven days after royal assent, was rejected.

Earlier Monday, Labour Minister Patti Hajdu said that the special mediator had concluded his work and the two sides were no longer negotiating.

Negotiations have been underway for nearly a year, but the dispute escalated more recently when CUPW members launched rotating strikes Oct. 22.

Those walkouts have led to backlogs of mail and parcel deliveries at the Crown corporation’s main sorting plants in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

Picket lines were up Monday in parts of British Columbia, including Vancouver, Richmond and Surrey, and in parts of Ontario, including Hamilton, Ajax, North York, Pickering and London. Workers also walked off the job in Halifax and Dartmouth, N.S.

During debate, Harder told senators that failure to speedily pass Bill C-89 would have severe consequences for those who rely on stable mail delivery service, including the elderly, residents in rural and remote areas and, most especially, retailers who use Canada Post to deliver online purchases.

“It is the government’s strong view that if it does not act now to protect the public interest, it will have acted too late,” he told the Senate, arguing that postal disruptions are “not merely inconvenient.”

“The strikes come at a critical period for retailers,” Harder said.

“Unlike other kinds of e-commerce transactions … lost holiday sales are unlikely to be deferred to a later date. They represent real and actual lost business for these companies.”

Canada Post said Monday that the backlog of mail and parcels is “severe” and expected to “worsen significantly” once online orders from Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are processed.

In a statement, the post office said it is experiencing delivery delays across the country and that’s expected to continue throughout the holiday season and into January.

Back-to-work with old agreement

The union wants better pay and job security, guaranteed hours for its 8,000 rural and suburban carriers, and equality for those workers with the corporation’s 42,000 urban employees.

CUPW also wants Canada Post to adopt rules that it says would cut down on workplace injuries — an issue the union has said is now at a “crisis” level.

Under the new legislation, the union said postal workers will be forced to go back to work under the old collective agreement, which it asserted would result in at least 315 disabling injuries and thousands of hours of forced, unpaid overtime.

The previous Conservative government forced an end to a lockout of postal workers during a 2011 dispute by enacting back-to-work legislation, which was later declared by a court to be unconstitutional.

But the Liberal government argues Bill C-89 is different, in that it does not impose immediate outcomes affecting postal contracts.

Whereas the 2011 bill imposed a settlement that favoured Canada Post, the current legislation would give a mediator-arbitrator appointed by the government 90 days to try and reach contract settlements. Failing that, a settlement could be imposed either through a decision from the arbitrator or by choosing from one of the final proposals put forward by Canada Post or CUPW.

In drafting the bill, Harder said the government has taken into account court rulings and is confident that its limitations on the right to strike would be upheld as a reasonably justifiable infringement of charter rights in a free and democratic society.

Independent Sen. Marc Gold, a former constitutional law professor, said he’s inclined to agree with the government.

But another independent, Sen. Andre Pratte, said the bill makes “a fair, negotiated agreement impossible by depriving workers of the lone source of their bargaining power, their right to strike.”

“Because the right to strike is a fundamental right … I am convinced that more time should be allowed for negotiations to come to a fruitful conclusions,” he said.

While not all Conservative senators supported the bill, several of their colleagues slammed the Liberal government for failing to put an end to the strikes sooner.

“This government was so concerned with appearances, not wanting to look like previous governments, wanting instead ‘to wag their finger and lift their chin in righteous indignation, that they sat on their hands until it was almost too late. And it still might be too late,” Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos told the upper house.

Fellow Conservative Sen. Don Plett said “the government sat on its hands until the 11th hour and then in a panicked rush suddenly decided something needed to be done.”