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Canada Post workers went on strike early Friday after failing to reach a negotiated agreement with their employer, exactly one year after talks began.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) says approximately 55,000 workers in its urban, rural and suburban mail carrier (RSMC) bargaining units are striking, claiming little progress has been made in the bargaining process.
“Canada Post had the opportunity to prevent this strike, but it has refused to negotiate real solutions to the issues postal workers face every day,” the union said in a statement.
“Instead, Canada Post left us no choice when it threatened to change our working conditions and leave our members exposed to layoffs.”
The strike action comes ahead of Black Friday and the beginning of the holiday season, when Canadians rely on the postal service to send and receive gifts, packages and cards.
Canada Post said in a statement early Friday that its operations will shut down, affecting millions of Canadians and businesses.
Mail and parcels, the Crown corporation said, will not be processed or delivered during the strike, and some post offices will be closed. Service guarantees will be affected for items already in the postal network and no new items will be accepted.
The union and the company have agreed that benefit cheques will still be mailed out during the strike, including for the Canada Child Benefit, Old Age Security and the Canada Pension Plan.
Once operations resume, the corporation said, mail and parcels will be delivered on a first-come, first-serve basis, but “a national strike of any length will impact service to Canadians well after the strike activity ends.”
Negotiating for a year
Earlier this week, Canada Post said progress in the negotiations had been “slow and lacking on major issues.” The two sides began talks toward a new contract on Nov. 15, 2023.
Mark Lubinski, the Toronto local president of CUPW, said that Canada Post workers have fallen behind as the cost of living has gone up, with high rent and inflation leaving employees “unable to survive.”
“We’re prepared to be out here as long as we need to be,” Lubinski told CBC News.
He said Canada Post workers know that they provide an essential service and that they have no other choice after a year of negotiations with the Crown corporation.
“The climate seems to be that Canada Post and other employers are waiting for the government to legislate us back to work,” Lubinski said. “We want to negotiate a fair contract for our workers.”
During work stoppages in 2011 and 2018, the federal government passed legislation to send Canada Post employees back to work.
No alternative, small business owner says
Workers gave Canada Post 72-hour notice on Tuesday, as the Crown corporation warned that a potential strike would further impact its already dire financial situation.
Canada Post served the union with a lockout notice not long after but said it didn’t intend to lock workers out.
CUPW was in a legal strike position as of Nov. 3, after a legally mandated cooling-off period. In a vote last month, more than 95 per cent of both urban and rural workers backed a strike mandate, the union has said.
Canada Post’s latest contract offer included annual wage increases that amounted to 11.5 per cent over four years. It also offered protection of the defined benefit pension for current employees, as well as job security and health benefits.
CUPW said that wasn’t enough and that the two parties remain far apart on several issues.
“Our demands are reasonable: fair wages, safe working conditions, the right to retire with dignity, and the expansion of services at the public post office,” it said in its statement.
In a post on social media platform X Thursday evening prior to the strike announcement, federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said federal mediators have been working with the union and the Crown corporation, and a special mediator has been appointed to support the two sides.
“We are making sure that these two groups have everything they need to reach a deal.”
The labour minister or either party in a dispute can request a mediator, per the Canada Labour Code, as has been done in the work disruption at B.C. ports.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) called on the federal government Thursday to use all its powers, including binding arbitration or back-to-work legislation to end the disruption.
The CFIB said in its statement that about 80 per cent of small businesses in Canada rely on Canada Post for shipping goods or for invoicing or receiving payments.
“Letter mail doesn’t have an alternative, and that’s what most of our shipping is,” Rémi Vienneau LeClair, owner of Comic Hunter in Moncton, told CBC News. “It’s asking people if they want to pay $20 instead of $2. It’s not really an alternative.”
Meanwhile, Teamsters Canada has said its members at Purolator won’t handle any packages postmarked or identified as originating from Canada Post.
Spokesperson Christopher Monette said in an email ahead of the strike announcement that the CUPW has the Teamsters’ full support, and that they believe good union jobs are essential pillars of Canadian society.
