Canada Post strike: What happens to the parcels already accepted?
Postal workers could go on strike as early as midnight on Friday after a notice from the union was received by the Crown Corporation.
The Canada Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), which represents more than 55,000 postal workers, informed the management of its decision on Monday.
Canada Post said the corporation is accepting no new items until the end of the strike. “All mail and parcels in our network will be secured and delivered as quickly as possible once operations resume,” per a May 19 news release from Canada Post.
The corporation said it has had more than a $3 billion in losses before tax since 2018. There will be another significant loss for 2024. The federal government announced this year that it would offer repayable funding of up to $1.034 billion for Canada Post to prevent insolvency, per the news release.
Postal workers went on strike ahead of Christmas last year , delaying the deliveries of millions of holiday packages for Canadians. The possibility of a strike at the end of this week comes after recommendations from a report of the Industrial Inquiry Commission by Commissioner William Kaplan.
“The report provides an objective assessment of the challenges facing the postal system and the fundamental obstacles in the negotiations between Canada Post and CUPW. It also offers a series of recommendations for a sustainable path forward for our company,” per the Canada Post .
The union said the report “skews heavily” in favour of the corporation in a May 16 news release .
“These recommendations amount to service cuts, contracting out, and major rollbacks to important provisions in our existing collective agreements. There is also no guarantee that if these changes are made, Canada Post will increase its parcel business,” the union said. “Canada Post’s proposals have not been fully costed, nor have we been provided with concrete actionable plans. The recommendations also run counter to the demands you put forward and our years of campaigning to preserve and expand the public post office.”
What happened the last time Canada Post workers went on strike?
Postal workers went on strike at midnight on Nov. 15, 2024. The union said it had been bargaining for a year without results, therefore decided to strike. The union said its demands included fair wages, safe working conditions, the right to retire with dignity, and the expansion of services at the public post office. Although a strike was a “last resort,” it said that Canada Post “must be willing to resolve our new and outstanding issues.”
Bargaining continued with the help of mediators; however, no agreement was reached. After weeks of striking, Minister of Labour Steve MacKinnon announced that the government was asking the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to order postal workers to get back on the job.
The union called the government’s involvement an “assault” on the constitutional right to collectively bargain and strike.
After two days of hearings, the CIRB confirmed that the corporation and its workers would not be able to come to an agreement. Employees were ordered back to work on Dec. 17.
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