Canada Post workers on strike ahead of busy holiday season

Thousands of Canada Post workers went on strike Friday, after the national postal service and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers failed to reach a deal for a new collective agreement.

The strike will significantly reduce mail service in the lead-up to the busy holiday season. Small businesses, which tend to be dependent on Canada Post because it is a cheaper option for parcel delivery, have warned that a prolonged strike could devastate them financially and could lead to higher costs for consumers.

“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,” CUPW 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.”

Canada Post said that it was “disappointed” with CUPW’s decision to strike and warned that a strike would mean a shut down of mail and parcel delivery to remote and Northern regions which rely on Canada Post.

CUPW and Canada Post have been at odds over a wide range of issues: wages, job conditions for their letter carriers, improved benefits and long-term protection against technological change.

This week, CUPW issued a 72-hour strike notice, calling negotiations “challenging and intricate.” Canada Post responded by saying that they would lock postal workers out of their jobs at 8 a.m. ET on Friday if an agreement could not be reached.

In the past, CUPW organized rotating strikes, where employees would picket on different days in different locations. This time, the strike will be nationwide, with members of all bargaining units across the country walking off the job starting Friday. Some mail will still be delivered; the postal service and the union have agreed to continue delivering “socio-economic cheques” such as pensions and unemployment insurance during the strike.

Jan Simpson, national president of CUPW, recently told The Globe that competition with same-day delivery giants, such as Amazon.com Inc., had led to tougher work conditions for her members, and that the union was trying to build a new collective agreement that would address these long-term shifts in the industry.

CUPW is asking for a compounded wage increase of 24 per cent spread over four years, while Canada Post has proposed a 11.5-per-cent wage increase over four years. The union is also asking for 10 paid sick days and improved health coverage. Members currently get seven paid personal days.

Canada Post wants to negotiate a “more flexible and affordable delivery model” that would include parcel delivery seven days a week, a proposal CUPW opposes.

One of the sticking points between the two sides is the “separate sort from delivery” system, or SSD, where letter carriers spend a full shift only delivering mail and sorters work indoors to sort the mail. The union wants SSD eliminated, arguing that splitting those two jobs leaves one worker subject to much harsher work conditions than the other.

In 2018, Canada Post workers went on strike for nearly a month before the federal Liberal government tabled back-to-work legislation that forced their return. A 2011 strike lasted for less than two weeks before back-to-work legislation was imposed by the Conservative government.

Canada Post said that the 2018 job action had cost the corporation $135-million.

CUPW’s demands come amid a prolonged revenue shortfall for the national postal service. Since 2018, the corporation said it has lost $3-billion, owing to declining letter mail and intense competition from speedier delivery service providers such as Amazon, United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. In the first half of 2024 alone, Canada Post had posted losses amounting to $490-million.

CUPW has long argued that Canada Post has not done enough to innovate their business beyond mail and parcel delivery. The union wants Canada Post to introduce postal banking, where all 6,000 post offices across Canada would provide basic banking services. Postal banking is offered in many countries, including Japan, Italy, France and New Zealand. Canada Post and TD Bank briefly teamed up in 2022 to offer small consumer loans at post offices, but that program was discontinued after a few months. No reasons were given by either side. The postal service said Nov. 8 that it will be offering a chequing and savings account in partnership with Koho Financial Inc. The accounts will be launched nationally next year, The Canadian Press reported.

Steven Tufts, a labour expert at York University, said that while CUPW has a long history of militancy, it has not built the massive public campaign necessary that would force Canada Post to pivot its business model and cater to some of the union’s long-term demands. “I find it interesting that CUPW knows Canada Post is struggling but is still making these demands anyway,” he said.

Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon told reporters in Montreal on Friday that the government was not looking at any other solution to a strike other than continued negotiations between both sides. The government has appointed the Director General of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services as a special mediator to support both sides in reaching a deal.

The Liberals have, on multiple occasions this year, intervened to end labour disputes by asking the federal labour board to impose binding arbitration. This week, the government directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order striking port workers in Montreal and Vancouver back to work. In August, the CIRB forced striking rail workers to end their job stoppage.