Commonwealth—Canada‘s postal workers union called a national strike hours after the federal government made sweeping reforms to Canada Post that would end door-to-door mail delivery to nearly every Canadian home in the next decade. The 55,000 postal workers’ strike is meant to be a protest against extreme changes that would allow the Crown corporation to build up its revenue, as it is experiencing an acute loss in letter mail and a limited part of the growth in package business. The government intends to stop home delivery to approximately four million addresses and substitute it with group mailboxes.
It will bring most of the houses affected in three to four years and complete the rollout within nine years. Reforms will make mean delivery times three or four days longer, to seven days. Ottawa anticipates saving up to $400 million annually by replacing door-to-door mail with cluster mailboxes. Apart from the above, some of these post offices will permanently close and lower mail frequency. The fresh news came from Procurement Minister Joel Lightbound, who said, in his words, that Canada Post must demonstrate a clear way out of operating in the red.
He also showed how the organization is losing nearly $10 million a day and has been compelled to accept successive federal bailouts as a way of trying to stabilize the business. The government has adopted the Industrial Inquiry Commission’s suggestions, which included expanding community mailboxes and giving approval to revise the collective agreement with the aim of contracting weekend part-time employees for the purpose of reducing the weekday workload. The walkout has created significant disruption.
Canada Post has announced that it will not accept new packages or mail during the stopwork, and some post offices will temporarily close. Live animals and other packages and mail already in the system will be distributed under special arrangements, and government welfare cheques will continue by mail. However, suspending the regular processing of mail and parcels would lead to significant delays, especially during the busy holiday shipping season. Union members said they were taken aback by the government’s announcement and accused Canada Post and federal officials of depressing demand for postal services by slashing prices. The CUPW had legitimate grounds to walk out and started organizing picket lines throughout the country, starting in Atlantic Canada and scheduled to fan out throughout the nation in a day.
Canada Post and the union negotiated for nearly two years with little traction, the two of them on wages and modifying the collective agreement as it was presented to include part-timers and Saturday mail delivery. Canada Post adopted the reforms as the way to remain in the forefront of changing customer needs and to maintain in operation a trustworthy, Canadian-owned delivery network. The organization stated that it will be doing its part with the help of employees and the government in making the changes as quickly and intelligently as they can. Business firms have been most worried about the impact of the strike on shoppers and small business owners.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses also warned that the strike would cause tremendous disruptions in shipping as well as retail business, especially around holiday seasons.
They urged the union and government to go back to the bargaining table to achieve a balanced deal and needed reforms to continue uninterrupted regardless of labor’s failure. The walkout signifies the intensifying conflict between Canada Post’s modernization policies and the union’s insistence on preserving jobs and conditions. Federal mediators present are attempting to negotiate an agreement with both parties being enticed to compromise on terms that will make the corporation viable and offer Canadians stable service.
