Some Canada Post users halt deliveries with postal workers now in legal position to strike

Negotiations between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) are continuing, with neither side issuing notice of a work stoppage. 
CUPW said in a statement to the Star Tuesday morning that it is “actively engaged at the bargaining table, and committed to securing fair, negotiated collective agreements.” 
“True progress happens when both sides negotiate in good faith — something we need to see from Canada Post,” CUPW said. 
Canada Post, likewise, acknowledged in a Monday night statement to the Star that discussions have not been as productive as hoped. Still, Canada Post confirmed that neither side has provided notice of their intent to start a labour disruption. 
“We remain hopeful that further discussions will afford a breakthrough, but urgency is now required. Our deteriorating financial situation could require the company to revisit its proposals,” Canada Post said. 
In a short statement Sunday, the Crown corporation said both sides have agreed not to give the required 72-hour notice of a strike or lockout “as long as the talks are productive.” It said operations are continuing as normal.
CUPW could have been in a legal strike position as of Sunday, after a cooling-off period in the contract talks ended the day before. The union said Friday that a notice could be issued “at any time” if talks break down.
Canada Post presented its latest contract offer last week which included annual wage increases amounting to 11.5 per cent over four years.
The new proposal also protects the defined benefit pension for current employees, as well as their job security and health benefits. The corporation says the offer will “ensure current employees don’t lose ground.”
On Wednesday, the union said Canada Post’s offer “is far from what we are demanding and deserve.” The union announced earlier in the week its members had voted overwhelmingly to support a strike if a deal could not be reached at the bargaining table. It said preliminary results showed 95.8 per cent of urban workers and 95.5 per cent of rural workers voted to back the strike mandate.
Canada Post, meanwhile, said in its statement Sunday that it is “rapidly falling behind in today’s highly competitive, customer-focused parcel delivery market.”
Last week, the corporation said it lost $490 million in the first six months of 2024, and $3 billion since 2018. The company said it wants to negotiate “a more flexible and affordable delivery model” that would include parcel delivery seven days a week.
Peggy Blair, a retired lawyer and mystery author based in Ashton, Ont., operates her own imprint, which she founded just over a year ago. She said she’s suspending deliveries of her books to readers due to the possibility of a disruption in postal service. 
Canada Post is a more cost-effective way of shipping her books to readers than other carriers, she said, because it allows books to be sent as oversized mail, which can save her a significant amount of money on each one shipped.
With the holiday season coming up, she found it prudent to suspend deliveries so that books don’t get stuck in the mail en route to their destinations. 
“The problem is, I don’t know when that strike might hit, if it hits,” Blair said. “If I mailed a book out last week, I can’t guarantee delivery, and I don’t know how long a strike — if there is a strike — I don’t know if it will last through Christmas.”
Postal workers held a rally in front of the Manitoba Legislature in Winnipeg on Sunday, expressing their displeasure with their current working conditions and wages. Postal workers also held a similar gathering in Sudbury, Ont.
The union told the Star last week that “the best contracts are negotiated at the bargaining table.” Canada Post previously said that its “goal throughout these negotiations with CUPW has always been to reach negotiated agreements, without any labour disruption.”
With files from The Canadian Press