Dozens of Canada Post employees remain on the picket lines, despite cold weather. (Photo: Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge postal workers on strike undeterred by cold, not contacted about delivering election cards

Nov 26, 2024 | 2:36 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Around one week and a half later, Canada Post employees remain on the picket lines.

Dozens of members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) are still stationed outside of the downtown Lethbridge post office as they and Canada Post have been unable to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.

Workers have been on strike since November 15.

The last few days have seen dozens of centimetres of snow and temperatures dipping well into the negatives. Despite the onslaught of wintery weather, the local workers seem undeterred and their spirits high.

CUPW Local 770 Chief Shop Steward Cole Morgan says, that if they were not striking, they would be outside anyways delivering the mail.

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He adds that he is a little concerned to see more people turning to private couriers for their mail delivery during the job action.

Morgan, however, thinks they should be able to get most people back to using Canada Post, especially those in rural areas.

“Even if you consider the majority of the competitors when we’re talking about last mile of service, or we’re talking about delivering to the small communities that don’t have a multitude of alternative courier companies delivering to them, it’s going through us anyway,” says Morgan. “Even if you’re paying, you know, UPS or DHL or any of these other companies to deliver to you, very often, when you live in a smaller community, we’re delivering it ourselves.”

Canada Post employees are not delivering mail until the strike is over. There was a one-time exception when letter carriers still gave people their government cheques.

LNN asked Morgan about how the postal strike could affect the Lethbridge-West by-election as Elections Alberta said it would not be able to mail out voter registration and information cards.

He says CUPW and Canada Post have not been contacted by the Government of Alberta or Elections Alberta about making another exception to deliver those cards to voters.

“I mean, certainly our union as a whole isn’t overtly opposed to the idea of assisting a citizen participation. But at this point in time, there’s no actual plans in place,” says Morgan.

READ MORE: Nenshi says not sending voter cards due to postal strike could affect Lethbridge-West by-election

READ MORE: Lethbridge Canada Post workers on strike, joining national movement

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