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An opinion piece from the Globe and Mail..

23 May 2025 03:21:24 UTC

opinion

Canada Post workers could strike again. If they do, the public will see red
Rita Trichur
Published May 20, 2025
Updated May 21, 2025

304 Comments

The first alert came from my bank. Then every other company
that sends me a monthly paper bill followed suit. Canada Post
workers could go on strike later in May, they warned. So, sign
up for e-statements instead because you're still on the hook
for paying on time. "We also recommend that you set up
preauthorized debits and payments to help avoid any
inconvenience with your payments during the service
disruption," my bank said. Call me old-fashioned, but I hate e-
bills and paying with plastic. But making the switch is
starting to seem logical now that Canada Post has received a
strike notice from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).
Canada Post workers could walk out at the stroke of midnight on
Friday just as their extended contract expires, continuing a
protracted labour dispute.

If you recall, postal workers were ordered back to work last
December after a strike that lasted 32 days and disrupted the
holiday shopping season. The memory of stranded holiday
presents and letters to Santa are still fresh in people's
minds. So, the prospect of yet another postal delivery
disruption is sure to irk Canadians from coast to coast to
coast. Mail delivery is an essential service, especially for
people who live in rural communities. But Canada Post is facing
a worsening financial crisis. As a result, mail service is
costing more but becoming less dependable.

For all those reasons, postal workers risk destroying the last
shred of the public's sympathy if they strike for the second
time in less than six months. Canada Post may have a monopoly
on mail delivery, but its finances are a mess and only expected
to get worse over the coming years. From 2018 to 2023, the
Crown corporation lost a whopping $3-billion on a pretax basis.
Plummeting mail volumes - 5.5 billion letters were delivered in
2006 versus 2.2 billion in 2023 - are one source of financial
pressure. So, too, is population growth, which results in
roughly new 200,000 addresses annually. There has also been a
marked shift from letter mail to parcels as more Canadians shop
online. But Canada Post is increasingly competing with private
delivery services that benefit from lower labour costs. As a
result, Canada Post's market share in the parcel delivery
market tumbled from 62 per cent prior to the COVID-19 pandemic
to 29 per cent in 2023. "Canada Post's financial situation is
unsustainable," states its 2023 annual report.

Accordingly, the federal government threw Canada Post a
financial lifeline this past January - a $1-billion-plus loan
of taxpayers' money.

In this softening economy, however, voters have little appetite
for throwing good money after bad and little patience for
public-sector unions that are oblivious to the fiscal realities
facing the federal government.

The CUPW needs to be realistic with its wage demands and
demonstrate flexibility about the use of part-time staff to
make weekend deliveries.

A recent report by the Industrial Inquiry Commission
recommended that part-time staff who work weekend shifts be
covered by the collective agreement, which is an entirely
sensible approach.

The report's other key recommendation, the phase-out of door-
to-door delivery, is likely inevitable, too, whether the union
admits it or not.

"Bargaining largely failed because one party - CUPW - is
defending business as usual, and wants to improve on the status
quo with, for example, further job security enhancements and
even better than best-in-class total compensation and terms and
conditions of employment," states the report.

That assessment is not going to land well with taxpayers,
especially since mail delivery has become less reliable in
recent years. While people in other countries enjoy Saturday
mail delivery, Canadians can't even count on their supermarket
flyers arriving before the start of sales.

Taxpayers have had enough. Canada Post is bleeding red. Instead
of being part of the solution, CUPW seems intent on forcing it
to go belly up.

Read or post comments (304)

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