Three weeks after the postal strike ended, Canada Post says it is “back to full service levels” for domestic packages and “on-time” delivery guarantees, but is still dealing with delays in delivering letters, bills, statements and both international and business mail.
The Crown corporation has also “returned to normal processing and delivery levels across the country,” including in rural and remote areas, which depend largely on the national postal service.
However, Canada Post said Canadians should continue to expect delivery delays of several days beyond its service standard for transaction mail such as letters, bills and statements.
International items will still be delayed for “several days” as the company works “through the accumulated international volumes,” and business customers should also “continue to expect delivery delays of several days,” Canada Post said, as it works through the “significant amount” of neighbourhood mail still to be delivered.
“Despite being forced to return to work under the same conditions that led to the strike, postal workers are working to clear the backlog and remain committed to serving Canadians as full services resume,” the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) said in a statement to the Star.
Canada Post had previously suspended delivery guarantees in the immediate aftermath of the strike, advising customers that “expected delivery dates are subject to change and service guarantees remained suspended.” At two downtown Toronto post offices, signage bearing that message remained posted as of Tuesday morning.
In addition, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced last week that it was resuming acceptance of mail and packages bound for Canada, which it had previously suspended during the strike.
“While we’ve stabilized our operations and taken care of the parcels in our network, we continue to work through higher volumes of mail,” Canada Post said. “We thank Canadians for their patience these past few weeks as we’ve worked to safely restore normal operations while managing significant holiday volumes.”
Logistics and supply chain management experts previously said that the postal backlog created by the strike would take weeks to clear, especially given the size and complexity of the company’s network.
All told, the national postal strike lasted four weeks and resulted in the delay of most mail across the country. It came to an end when 55,000 postal workers were ordered back to work by the federal government after the labour minister repeatedly indicated the government’s preference was a negotiated settlement at the bargaining table.
Throughout the strike, foreign workers were left stranded as their passports languished in the mail, city services were impacted and small business owners missed out on the busiest time of year.
The Canadian Federation of Business (CFIB) estimated in December that small firms collectively lost $100 million a day as a result of the strike, with the total financial hit on small businesses exceeding $1.5 billion.
The CFIB polling also showed that more than three quarters of small businesses rely on Canada Post’s services to do business, while 73 per cent of small business owners said they would be using Canada Post less in the future as a result of the strike.
During the strike, the union filed an unfair labour complaint with the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), alleging that the company had laid off striking workers in several cities across the country.
The union withdrew its complaint after the company agreed to rescind the layoff notices and agreed it would not lay off any additional workers.
With files from The Canadian Press.
