Friday, November 22nd marks the seventh day of the nationwide Canada Post workers’ strike and a resolution is unlikely prior to the weekend.
There are now government appointed mediators working with Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) to help find an amicable resolution for the parties involved.
Over 55,000 postal workers are on strike to try to achieve fair wages, safe working conditions, the right to retire with dignity and the expansion of services at the public post office.
CUPW has been in negotiations for over a year to try and achieve these demands; however Canada Post is not seeing eye to eye with what is being asked.
Canada Post has not made any updates since the strike began, but they have made a recent announcement, revealing immense fiscal losses.
Canada Post says that they have recorded a $315 million loss, before tax, in the third quarter of 2024 as a result of declining parcel deliveries.
They say this is due to a highly competitive ecommerce market.
“Canada Post will record another significant loss in 2024, the seventh consecutive annual loss for the Corporation,” said Canada Post in a statement.
CUPW has been clear and concise in their communications regarding the ongoing negotiations.
For the rural and suburban mail carrier unit, CUPW’s focus in discussions has been on pay stability for route holders. The union says that as workers’ pay system is being moved to a new hourly rate system, they need to ensure that route holders can count on stable pay cheques, because some aspects of their job are often fluctuating.
Additionally, CUPW has been continuing discussions on maximizing and maintaining 8-hour routes for postal workers.
The urban unit delivers mail in urban centres throughout Canada. On their behalf, CUPW has been continuing talks on weekend delivery.
For these weekend deliveries, the union has several priorities: not allowing weekend work to undermine our full-time routes on weekdays and not allowing the Canada Post to create a second-class of employees to deliver parcels as cheaply as they can.
“The Union will not take part in a race to the bottom with ‘gig-economy’ platforms, whose business model depends on cheap labour with no rights,” wrote CUPW in a recent update.
The strike has left millions across Canada without access to mail, and will continue to do so until an agreement can be made at the negotiations table.
