Canada Post Workers Launch Nationwide Strike After Ottawa Unveils Sweeping Reforms

Full report

About 55,000 members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) walked off the job Friday morning, October 2, halting mail and parcel processing and delivery across the country. Canada Post said operations will shut down for the duration of the strike: mail and parcels will not be processed or delivered, some post offices will be closed, and no new items will be accepted.

The strike was triggered by a sweeping reform plan unveiled Thursday by Joël Lightbound, Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement. The measures include ending door-to-door delivery for the roughly four million addresses that still have it, converting them to community mailboxes over the next decade; slowing the letter-mail standard from an average of three-to-four days to three-to-seven days; lifting the moratorium on rural post-office closures; and giving Canada Post more flexibility to raise prices. Ottawa projects the changes will save about C$400 million a year.

Lightbound said Canada Post lost C$1 billion last year and is on track to lose C$1.5 billion this year, calling the corporation "effectively insolvent" and warning that repeated bailouts are not a long-term solution.

CUPW called the announcement a "direct assault on our public post office" and said the union was blindsided. The workers have been without a contract after nearly a year of bargaining following the weeks-long walkout late last year. Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has appointed the head of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service as a special mediator, according to reports.