Canada Post and it's locked out Postal workers have failed to come to a settlement after three days of intense negotiating until Wednesday morning. Both the parties have until Thursday to reach an agreement before Parliament starts a debate over the government's plan on back-to-work legislation which was introduced Monday by Labour Minister Lisa Raitt.

They have since stopped all talks and failed to negotiate. The union says the Crown corporation made no significant moves during their last round of talks.

The Conservatives, who introduced the bill, won't back down from a prolonged battle, but are working to have it passed as quickly as possible with a possible vote. There's no words on how long the debate on the bill itself will take, even though the House is scheduled to begin it's summer break Thursday.

If everybody wants to co-operate, we could finish as early as Thursday or early into Friday, Conservative House leader Peter Van Loan said Wednesday. If the other parties are determined to prolong this matter, we could be sitting through the weekend.

NDP Leader Jack Layton said his MPs are prepared to sit all weekend and into next week to wrestle against legislating the employees back to work. We intend to delay the legislation to give both sides more time to reach an agreement on their own here, he said.

Opposition MPs have condemned the Government for wage reductions specifically and the bill as a whole, saying the Government should leave the business to the two disputing parties.

Canada Post locked its employees out June 14, after 12 days of rotating strikes by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.

Less than a week later, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt tabled Bill C-6, which would force the employees back to work at wages lower than the wages offered by Canada Post.

The Conservatives said they are eager to push the back-to-work bill through because with the prolonged strike could put Canada's economy at stake.

If the House passes the bill before Canada Post reaches an agreement with the union, the bill will be handed to the Senate for further debate, the Senate could pass the legislation in a single day, the last step is for the Governor General to give his stamp of approval to sign it into law. Mail service is supposed to re-start immediately.

According to the bill, both the employer and employee must resume postal service and duties without delay. Canada Post wasn't immediately available to say whether delivery would resume 24 hrs after the bill passes.

Settlement Canada