Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) Launched Nationwide Strike After Government Announced Changes at Canada Post

Brockville – The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) have launched a national strike following Thursday’s Federal Government announcement on changes at Canada Post

“On Thursday, the Minister responsible for Canada Post, Joël Lightbound, announced massive changes to the Government’s mandate for Canada Post and huge service cutbacks to the public,” said the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) in a statement on Thursday. “This announcement was an outrage. Minister Lightbound gave the Union no indication that he was going to do this when leadership met with him last week. The Minister said he had the “utmost respect” for postal workers. This is no way to show it.”

The CUPW represents approximately 55,000 postal workers across Canada.

“We’re disappointed that the union chose to escalate their strike activity, which will further deteriorate Canada Post’s financial situation. We understand that this latest update significantly impacts your business,” said Canada Post in a statement. “Canada Post’s operations will shut down during a national strike, affecting millions of Canadians and businesses across the country.”

Minister Lightbound announced that the Government was accepting and instructing Canada Post to implement the recommendations from William Kaplan’s Industrial Inquiry Commission (IIC) Report from May.

These include:

• Converting 4 million addresses to Community Mailboxes.
• Gutting the rural moratorium on post office closures.
• Giving Canada Post more “flexibility” in its delivery standards, including by cutting the requirement to deliver 5 days a week.
• Giving Canada Post the ability to raise stamp rates more frequently.

“The Minister emphasized the importance of serving all Canadians, but these recommendations will only undermine public service. We have no details on how any of them will be implemented. Converting more addresses to CMBs makes little sense when customers want their parcels delivered to the door. The Government has completely failed to consider the problems it faced a decade ago when CPC last tried to convert door-to-door to CMB delivery,” said the union.

Canada Post said that mail and parcels will not be processed or delivered for the duration of the national strike, and some post offices will be closed. Service guarantees are suspended for items already in the postal network. They also said they have notified customers that their scheduled pickups have been cancelled. No new items will be accepted until the national disruption is over.

“All mail and parcels in the postal network will be secured and delivered as quickly as possible once operations resume. However, a national strike of any length will impact service to Canadians well after the strike activity ends. Processing and delivery may take some time to fully return to normal,” said Canada Post.