Negotiation, not legislation – that was the message to the federal Conservatives from locked-out Yukon postal workers early Wednesday afternoon.

They gathered outside the Elijah Smith Building to protest the federal government's plans to force them back to work.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers' (CUPW's) rotating strike turned into a full work stoppage June 15, when the striking workers were locked out and negotiations ended.

The two sides are at odds over changes to the sick leave policy and a proposed pay-scale change which would see new employees paid about 30 per cent less than current postal workers doing the same job.

"Ageism is the new sexism,” read one sign at Wednesday's rally. "Equal pay for equal work.”

The postal workers were joined members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, as well as NDP Leader Liz Hanson and her staff.

Speaking on behalf of the public service union, newly elected vice-president Julie Docherty called the postal workers' union "trailblazers”.

"Thirty years ago, you were the first (union) in Canada to take a stand against apartheid,” she said, recalling the union's refusal to handle mail from South Africa during the apartheid era.

"You were the first to get maternity leave. You are trailblazers and pioneers.

"... We know what you did for us and we will be with you, behind you, all the way.”

In her address to the crowd of about 40 people gathered on the front steps of the federal building, Docherty outlined the postal workers' grievances with the proposed changes to their employment agreement.

While postal workers make up six per cent of the federal public service, they account for 20 per cent of workplace injuries, according to Docherty.

"You work in one of the most precarious and dangerous professions in this country,” she said.

With the loads mail carriers are expected to carry getting heavier and heavier, stress injuries will become more and more common, she added.

According to CUPW, the government is demanding the union exchange its current sick leave plan for one administered by an insurance company, which will take a week to access.

On the issue of reduced pay for new employees, Docherty said it is a breach of the Canadian Charter of Rights of Freedoms to deny people equal pay for equal work.

Meanwhile, Canada Post seems to be digging in its heels.

"The union continues to have too many demands that would drive up costs, limit operational flexibility and restrict Canada Post's ability to address fundamental problems such as declining mail volumes, competitiveness and a $3.2-billion deficit in the pension plan,” the Crown corporation said in a news release.

Docherty slammed the corporation's position on pensions, saying the average postal worker has a pension of $24,000 a year, while the CEO of Canada Post, Deepak Chopra, has an accumulated defined retirement benefit of more than $3 million.

Ron Rousseau, president of the local CUPW chapter, called the back-to-work legislation tabled in Parliament Tuesday "absolutely horrendous”.

"It penalizes us and rewards the government and Canada Post for not negotiating with us,” he said.

He defended the union against people who are angry with the work stoppage, saying the union planned rotating strikes so Canadians would not be too inconvenienced by the labour dispute.

"But the government and Canada Post are the ones who locked us out,” he said.

Docherty and Rousseau both made their unions' political allegiances clear Wednesday, calling on Hanson to speak and praising federal NDP Leader Jack Layton's support for their cause.

"We have a prime minister who has prorogued Parliament twice, who was found in contempt of Parliament and now has a majority,” Docherty said. "But we have the official Opposition.”

MPs may sit into the weekend to pass the back-to-work legislation, which provides for lower compensation than Canada Post's last offer to the union.

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