WELLINGTON COUNTY – The Canada Post strike has entered its second week, as weekend negotiations yielded “limited progress.”
The Canadian Union of postal Workers (CUPW) began its strike on Nov. 15 after nearly 55,000 Canada Post employees walked off the job.
Negotiations continued over the weekend, on Nov. 23 and 24, but yielded limited results.
“We continued to try and move forward with urgency on changes to our delivery model that would provide weekend delivery and more flexible staffing during the week,” Canada Post told the Advertiser.
“The union (CUPW) was largely focused on other issues, such as hiring the people who work for our contracted facility cleaning service and making them full-time or pushing back on any changes to the pay and benefits of people we’ll hire in the future.”
In a statement provided to the Advertiser by CUPW, the union called this round of bargaining an “attack” on postal workers.
“While Canada Post is doing everything it can to portray itself as fair and reasonable, the reality is that this round of bargaining has been an all-out attack on the rights and benefits postal workers have fought for decades to achieve,” stated CUPW.
“While talks continued this weekend, Canada Post was also busy laying off striking workers and it still hasn’t reinstated benefits and disability programs for workers. Much of the discussions this weekend focused on protecting our bargaining units’ work.”
The union added, “Canada Post says it wants flexibility, but what it really wants is the flexibility to hire lower-wage, part-time workers, reduce worker benefits, and create a second-class workforce.”
Canada Post officials say the Crown Corporation has lost more than $3 billion since 2018, including a loss of $315 million before tax in the third quarter of 2024.
They add that to secure the corporation’s future, they have put forward a proposal to offer seven day a week parcel delivery as well as other improvements.
“This new delivery model is essential for the future of the company, and critical to our ability to afford the offers,” said Canada Post.
“Delivery is a labour-intensive business, with labour and benefits consuming over 70 per cent of revenues at Canada Post in 2023.
“Labour costs rose by $242 million in 2023, or about 6.5 per cent, compared to 2022.”
Canada Post is now entering the busy Black Friday online shopping week effectively shut down.
Small online businesses have been greatly affected as most ship their products through Canada Post.
“We are down nearly 10 million parcels since the strike began, which will only increase as the strike continues and people look elsewhere to have their items delivered,” stated Canada Post.
“The impacts continue to be felt across the country, hitting small businesses, charities and remote communities the most.”
Both sides say they remain committed to reaching new agreements at the bargaining table as talks continue with the support of a special mediator.
