Is there any end in sight for the months-long Canada Post strike?
On Nov. 10, Canada Post submitted its overhaul plan to the federal government after being given 45 days to deliver a plan to restore its viability in September. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) have been on strike in response to the government cutting jobs and services to ease Canada Post’s financial crisis since September. After rejecting the government’s plan, they allowed the corporation to work with the CUPW to construct their own plan. The plan details how they will deal with their financial crisis and any changes they decide to make within the company to ensure strikes do not happen again.
Since 2018, the corporation of Canada Post has lost over $5 billion and is losing an estimated $10 million a day. This is due to a low volume of letters being delivered, high competition in parcel delivery, and high fixed delivery costs, resulting in citizens using the service less. After on-and-off strikes that resulted in more losses and no agreements, the Department of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement issued a large reform for Canada Post to combat these losses by proposing to close over 4,000 rural post offices and ending door-to-door delivery nationwide in September. This prompted the CUPW to increase their strike action, claiming these changes were an “outright attack” and “gutting” the postal service as a whole. The Canadian government responded by allowing Canada Post 45 days to submit its own report to tackle the financial crisis.
CUPW issued a statement saying that they “take no pleasure in striking” and “do not wish to withhold mail” from people, but in order to keep the postal service alive, striking is necessary. In October, the union demonstrated with rotating strikes, switching the Canadian regions where they strike. This results in inconsistencies in mail delivery, making it hard to foresee if and when mail will be delivered. In some areas, like St. John’s, mail delivery is running smoothly, but in others, like Sherbrooke, QC, no mail is being delivered at all. Interprovincial delivery faces large amounts of variability, with mail from Québec and Ontario being the most inconsistent and back-logged. The Retail Council of Canada says that “moving to rotational strikes took the pressure off, but has changed very little on the ground.” As of Oct. 20, CUPW is only striking in Québec, excluding the Montréal-Metropolitan area. For the entire duration of the strike, they have stopped delivering flyers to Ontario and Quebec, but will continue to deliver addressed mail in unaffected areas.
The overhaul plan is said to modernize the postal service while protecting the service that many Canadians, especially Indigenous People and people in rural areas, rely on. The details of the plan are not being released until the federal government signs off on the plan. It has been confirmed that the Procurement Minister is “reviewing it carefully.” Canada Post strikes will continue to rotate over the country, but if the government does not respond quickly, Canadians may see another nationwide strike before the holidays.