Postal workers across the country are on strike as of this morning after the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and Canada Post failed to reach a negotiated settlement.
The action comes after the union issued a 72-hour strike notice to the country’s national postal service on Tuesday.
In a statement, CUPW said that “a strike is a last resort.”
“Canada Post had the opportunity to prevent this strike, but it has refused to negotiate real solutions to the issues postal workers face every day. Instead, Canada Post left us no choice when it threatened to change our working conditions and leave our members exposed to layoffs,” CUPW said.
Canada Post said in a statement that “customers will experience delays due to the strike activity” and that “no new items will be accepted until the national disruption is over.
“This decision will have a significant and immediate impact on millions of Canadians, small businesses and charities who count on Canada Post during the busy holiday season.”
Fears are already beginning to rise that the walkout could interfere with the holiday season, which is one of the heaviest times of the year for consumers using the postal service.
Though it’s not known at this time how long the strike will last, Canada Post workers last went on strike in the fall of 2018, when rotating job actions lasted five weeks before CUPW workers were mandated back to work by the federal government.
Though most Canadians don’t use Canada Post as often as they once did, many small businesses and independent online sellers still depend on it: a survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) found 79 per cent of small businesses rely on Canada Post to do business, while three quarters of small firms said they will be negatively affected by a work stoppage.
Tom Cooper, a professor of business administration at Memorial University, said small, family-run businesses might be sympathetic to Canada Post, but their bottom lines — and reputation among customers — come first.
“It’s hard. I get both sides in terms of how it’s been managed and how they want to also get salary increases,” Cooper said. “But if I’m a small-business owner, I don’t care about that. I care about, can I get my goods from point A to point B quickly, within a specified date and it’s not going to cost me an arm and a leg.”
Jeff Wilson, a Vancouver-based painter who sells prints of his work online, closed his Etsy store for the duration of the strike.
He said Canada Post is the most convenient way to ship prints to customers due to there being a post office nearby and its cost.
“Canada Post is convenient for me to do my shipping,” Wilson said. “For me, it’s just easier to close it down for now and then open it up again when it’s resolved.”
Harley Finkelstein, president of Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify, called on the federal government to take action, writing on the social media platform X that “Canada Post going on strike 2 weeks before Black Friday devastates small businesses.”
Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon did not issue a statement Friday morning after CUPW announced the strike action, but said in a statement posted to X Thursday that “Canadians need them to reach an agreement.”
As worries surrounding a potential disruption grew, several municipalities nationwide — including the populous Ontario communities of Kitchener, Guelph and Durham Region — posted advisories to residents encouraging them to switch to online methods of paying bills and submitting documents.
CUPW represents more than 55,000 workers across Canada, including in more than 60 locals in Ontario.
