Mailbox Malaise: Canada Post Strike Continues Into the Holiday Season
Photo Credit: Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press
On Nov. 15, at 12:01 AM, the Canada Post strike officially began. According to CBC News, The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), announced that crown corporation Canada Post was refusing “to negotiate real solutions to the issues postal workers face every day."
The CUPW is attempting to negotiate a wage increase of 19 per cent over the next four years, while Canada Post is proposing a raise of only 11.5 per cent. The union is also advocating for improved sick leave regulations, benefits, and job security. "Our demands are reasonable: fair wages, safe working conditions, the right to retire with dignity and the expansion of services at the public post office," the union said, according to BBC News.
Initially, both sides came to the bargaining table. However, the federally mediated negotiation broke down on Nov. 27. Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon announced the end of the talks on X, stating, "After several intensive days of negotiation [...] parties remain too far apart on critical issues for mediation to be successful at this time.”
While the CUPW has reduced its demands slightly — it initially campaigned for a 24 per cent pay increase — Canada Post is refusing to budge. The standoff is creating severe implications for Canadian businesses and residents of remote northern communities, who rely on Canada Post for the delivery of medicine, cheque payments, and other important items.
According to BBC News, unshipped inventory for businesses is piling up in warehouses across the country, while shipping prices have increased exponentially. Small firms across the country are losing $100 million a day due to the strike, according to a statement from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Additionally, Services Canada has also been unable to ship 85, 000 passports and other government documents.
However, the end may be in sight for frustrated business owners and shoppers, much to the dismay of postal workers. On Dec. 13, MacKinnon ordered the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to send workers back to their jobs, even if an agreement is not reached. If the Board decides that a consensus is impossible before the end of the year, it will mandate almost 55,000 employees back to work.
If the Board does so, workers must stick with the current collective bargaining agreement from 2018. It will be extended until May 22 of next year. Soon after the statement from MacKinnon was released, CUPW called the decision an "assault on our constitutionally protected right to collectively bargain and to strike," according to CBC News.
The day after the government intervention, postal workers took to the picket lines, advocating for their demands to be met.
“Our pain is our gain — we’ve never received a single thing on a silver platter from this employer,” said Wycliffe Oduor, as he addressed workers at an informal protest outside Calgary’s mail processing plant. Oduor is the president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 710, a Calgary-based union which represents 2,500 Canada Post staffers.
“We’ll figure out what our members are saying and [they’ll] give us direction,” Oduor told the Calgary Herald. “If no mail goes out, no mail goes out.”