Photo Courtesy Canadian Press

By Tanner Smith

Postal Strike

Canada Post discusses ongoing strike deliberations

Nov 25, 2024 | 12:39 PM

Canada Post has released a statement regarding the ongoing CUPW national strike, and ongoing deliberations.

In the statement, Canada Post said it is “committed to reaching a new agreement at the bargaining table.”

Across the country, Canadians enter the busy Black Friday online shopping week and holiday season; which will impact “small businesses, charities, and remote communities the most,” according to Canada Post.

They said this impact will continue to be felt across the country, as they are already down ten million parcels since the strike started eleven days ago.

Canada Post says talks did continue over the weekend but were “limited”:

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“We continued to try and move forward with urgency on changes to our delivery model that would provide weekend delivery and more flexible staffing during the week. The union was largely focused on other issues, such as hiring the people who work for our contracted facility cleaning service and making them full-time, or pushing back on any changes to the pay and benefits of people we’ll hire in the future.

Canada Post’s proposals to offer seven-day-a-week parcel delivery and other important improvements are crucial to the company’s future, as it would allow us to grow our parcel business. They would also create new regular permanent part-time jobs with schedules, providing greater opportunities for temporary employees to become permanent, with guaranteed hours and eligibility for health and pension benefits.

Canada Post remains focused on protecting and enhancing what’s important to current employees – competitive wage increases, more paid leave, while protecting the defined benefit pension and their job security. Delivery is a labour-intensive business, with labour and benefits consuming over 70 per cent of revenues at Canada Post in 2023. Labour costs rose by $242 million in 2023, or about 6.5 per cent, compared to 2022.

Canada Post has lost more than $3 billion since 2018 and just posted a $315-million loss before tax in the third quarter of 2024.”

Negotiations between Canada Post and CUPW are set to continue today (Monday, November 25) with support from a special mediator.