Canadians should start receiving mail again on Tuesday, after Canada Post workers move from a nationwide strike to a rotating strike on Saturday morning.
The Canadian Postal Workers Union, which represents 55,000 Canada Post employees, says the battle for a fair collective bargaining agreement continues, but the reduced labor action allows workers to resume their jobs and remind Canadians that a full postal service is worth fighting for.
“[With] “When most of our workers go back to work, people can go out and talk to the public,” said Jim Gallant, CUPW negotiator. “The public sees the value of the post office.”
The union and Canada Post have been trying to negotiate a new collective agreement for more than a year and a half. But that is not the union’s only battle. postal workers launched a national strike two weeks ago, the second since last year, after the federal government announced sweeping changes at the Crown corporation.
Ottawa has asked Canada Post to end home delivery and close some rural mail locations to stabilize the debt-ridden company and ensure its survival. The Crown Corporation has not been profitable since 2017, reporting a loss of $1.3 billion last year. says it is on track to lose $1.5 billion this yearstaying afloat with a billion dollar government loan. (CUPW has suggested that Canada Post is embellishing some of these figures. The company did not respond to CBC’s request to comment on the claim.)
CUPW is committed to fighting Ottawa’s announced reforms to Canada Post and hopes Canadians will take up the cause.
“[Ottawa is] I’m going to cut off his arms and legs. The service is not going to be what it is supposed to be. It’s not going to be what Canadians need,” Gallant said. “Canadians need to call their parliamentarian; They need to go to their city hall.”
Labor expert Rafael Gómez says the union faces a difficult challenge: negotiating a new collective agreement while generating public opposition to the planned cuts in Ottawa.
“You have to balance it because if it’s not going to be detrimental, then there’s no real cost to the employer to bear,” said Gómez, a professor of labor relations at the University of Toronto. “If it is too disruptive, the public is affected.
“It’s this balancing act.”
Beware of mail delays
CUPW’s Gallant says rotating strikes will delay mail delivery in some parts of Canada. He also hinted that workers could resume a national strike at any time.
“Different people [will be off work] continuously for the next while, until we have a collective agreement or the union decides to change our strike activity,” he said.
Still, the resumption of mail delivery is good news for Kathryn Gallagher Morton, founder of Maplelea, a small business that sells Canadian-themed dolls online.
Next week it will mail tens of thousands of printed catalogs featuring its dolls, the biggest driver of the business’s holiday sales.
“I was excited,” Gallagher Morton said, when he heard the news. “It just makes a huge difference to our company and what we’ll be able to do this Christmas.”
However, he says he will not send a letter to his local MP asking the federal government to save the traditional postal service.
Gallagher Morton says it lost more than $300,000 in sales due to last year’s strike, prompting it to permanently switch to private delivery for most doll deliveries. Although it still relies on Canada Post to deliver catalogues, it says it, like Ottawa, supports a reduced postal service.
“I’m a tax-paying Canadian and I believe the government should operate in the most fiscally responsible way possible,” she said. “The whole world has to change. Times are changing and I think Canada Post needs to change its model.”
Still, some rural communities that rely heavily on Canada Post fear a smaller operation will affect many of their residents.
Lori Hoddinott, mayor of McNab/Braeside, told CBC News in September that 60 per cent of her rural community, located just west of Ottawa, is largely made up of older farmers who rely on home delivery. Cutting that service would create difficulties for them, he said.
“If it’s up to older people to go down the alley and travel 15 kilometers down a rural winter road to get to the post office, they won’t do it every day,” he said.
Canada Post has said it is maintaining its program that allows people with mobility issues to arrange options such as weekly home delivery.
Canada Post responds
Canada Post said in a statement Friday that it welcomes back its employees, but warned customers about “uncertainty and instability” in service due to rotating strikes.
The Crown Corporation also said it is ready to return to the negotiating table and is still waiting to hear back from the union about its last offer, made on October 3.
It includes a 13.59 percent pay increase over four years, health and retirement benefits and up to seven weeks of vacation. But the offer also eliminates a signing bonus that the corporation says it can no longer pay.
The union representing 55,000 Canada Post workers has announced it will end its strike across Canada and move to rotating strikes starting this weekend. The Canadian Postal Workers Union says the change will “get mail and packages moving.”
The CUPW said in a statement last week that the latest proposal is taking “significant steps backwards.”
However, Canada Post has given no indication that it plans to improve the agreement and continues to support the government’s plan for a smaller postal service.
“The need to align the business with the current needs of the country, to reduce dependence on taxpayer money, becomes more urgent each day this strike continues,” he said in a statement.
