Canada Post Receives Notice From Union That They Will Strike This Week

A second mail strike in as many months could happen by the end of this week.

Canada Post says it has received strike notices from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. The notices indicate that CUPW intends to begin strike activity on Friday, May 23rd at 12:00am.

In the event CUPW initiates rotating strike activity, Canada Post says it intends to continue delivering in unaffected areas. In the event of a national labour disruption, mail and parcels will not be delivered, and no new items will be accepted until the disruption is over. All mail and parcels in our network will be secured and delivered as quickly as possible once operations resume.

Canada Post says socio-economic cheques (SECs) for the month of May will be delivered prior to the possibility of any strike activity commencing.  Canada Post and CUPW have agreed to continue the delivery of socio-economic cheques during any upcoming labour disruption, for eligible and participating government organizations. The agreement ensures government financial assistance delivered by mail will reach seniors and other Canadians who rely on it.

Second Stike

Canada Post workers were on strike for several weeks in December before being ordered back to work when the Canada Industrial Relations Board found that Canada Post and CUPW are unlikely to reach a deal by the end of the year.  The Board ordered an extension of the current collective agreements until May and a resumption of operations.

Since then, there have been several weeks of negotiations for a new contract, but no deal has been reached.

Both sides also participated in an Industrial Inquiry Commission, which released its recommendations on Friday.  Recommendations from the report include phasing out daily door-to-door letter mail delivery for individual addresses and establishing community mailboxes wherever practicable. Daily delivery to businesses should be maintained, the report said..  The full report can be found online here.