Credit - Canada Post
Over 55,000 employees will be off the job as of Friday morning. The Canada Post Workers Strike follows a 72-hour strike notice issued by the union on Tuesday Canada Post says “customers will experience delays” and its “entire network” will be impacted. Postal workers from coast to coast are on strike as of this morning after the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and Canada Post couldn’t come to a negotiated settlement.
The move comes after the union issued a 72-hour strike notice to the country’s national postal service on Tuesday. In a statement, CUPW said that “a strike is a last resort”.
Canada Post could have- and should have- avoided this strike, but up until now, it has refused to negotiate real solutions to the problems our members encounter every day on the job. Instead, Canada Post left us no choice when it threatened to unilaterally change our working conditions and leave our members vulnerable to layoffs,” said CUPW.
Customers can expect delays due to strike activity,” Canada Post said in a statement, noting that “no new items will be accepted until the national disruption ends.”
Fears are already beginning to rise that the walkout might interfere with the holiday season, which is one of the heaviest times of the year for the use of the postal service by consumers.
While it is not known at this time how long the strike will continue, Canada Post workers last went on strike in the fall of 2018, when rotating job actions lasted five weeks before CUPW workers were legislated back to work by the federal government.
Although most Canadians no longer rely as much on the services of Canada Post, many small businesses and independent online sellers continue to rely on its services:
In practice, most people do not want to see Canada Post fail because they either work for it or have family who works for it,” said Tom Cooper, professor of business administration with Memorial University, “but for small and family-run businesses, the bottom line and reputation amongst their customers-comes first”.
“It’s hard. I get both sides in terms of how it’s been managed and how they want to also get salary increases. But as a small business owner, I don’t care about that. What does matter to me is the fact that I can get my goods from point A to point B quickly, by a set date, and without it costing a fortune.”
As fears of a disruption mounted, dozens of municipalities across the country advised residents to transition to online services to pay bills and submit documents, including the Ontario cities of Kitchener, Guelph, and Durham Region.
CUPW represents over 55,000 workers across the country, represented by more than 60 locals in Ontario.
