In the wake of a Canada Industrial Relations Board decision to order postal workers across Canada back-to-work, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) say ‘the fight goes on’.
“After almost five weeks of a nationwide strike, the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), under the direction of the Minister of Labour, has stripped the right to strike from postal workers,” Jan Simpson, National President of CUPW, stated on Monday, December 16, 2024.
“Legal strike action ends at 8 a.m. local time on Tuesday, December 17, 2024, but the fight goes on. We are asking our members to return to their regularly scheduled shifts as of 8 a.m. local time on December 17, 2024, and await further instructions.”
Simpson added the union understands that members want to “hold the line until the last minute to show our disgust with what is currently happening.
“Contravening this order may push the employer to go back to the CIRB for enforcement of their decision. In our opinion, we have the right to question the employer to ensure that the employer’s access to the facilities is justified and is required to prepare for the resumption of the operations. Our obligation would be limited to allowing them access for that purpose only,” Simpson said.
“All options remain under consideration to achieve negotiated collective agreements that prioritize fair wages, improved health and safety, the ability to retire with dignity, and the democratic right to free collective bargaining,” Simpson added.
Canada Post officials said on Monday they will restart operations on Tuesday, December 17 and begin the process of safely ramping up and stabilizing operations across the country.
“With our large, integrated network of processing plants, depots and post offices, stabilizing operations will take time and we ask for your patience as we do this safely,” Canada Post officials say.
“We will start by working through the mail and parcels trapped in the system since the strike began on November 15. New commercial volumes will not be accepted into the network until Thursday, December 19. This means we will not pick up or accept mail or parcels at our plants or depots for the first 48 hours. These first two days will give us the time we need to safely reopen facilities, restart machines and vehicles that have been idle for weeks, and begin working through the volumes in our network.”
Canada Post officials added: “As new volumes are accepted, mail and parcels will be secured and delivered on a first-in, first-out basis. Customers should expect delivery delays through the remainder of 2024 and into January 2025.”
Canada Post officials said in order “to help customers better plan and prepare”, they’ve provided some information on what they can expect in the days ahead:
Parcels
– Customers should expect delays and restrictions as we stabilize our operations, including for pickups, drop-offs and delivery.
– Scheduled pickups will start on December 19, but it will take several days to process items. We will make a best effort to collect all items at the time of the pickup; if that is not possible due to volumes or equipment availability, we will return to pick up the remaining items either the same day or next day.
– On-demand pickups will not be available until Monday, December 23.
On-time service guarantees
– Service guarantees are suspended as the company ramps up operations.
– Once the network is stabilized, we will notify customers when on-time service guarantees are reinstated.
Return labels and call-for items
– All return labels created on or after October 15 will remain valid for up to 45 days until our operations stabilize.
– We will also restart the clock on all items currently held for customer pick-up at post offices, regardless of whether the office was open or closed during the strike.
– Beginning December 17, consumers will have 15 days to pick up their parcel before it is returned to the sender.
Parcel Redirection service
– If customers leveraged Parcel Redirection during the strike, we will do our best to locate and redirect their parcel. However, our ability to fulfill Parcel Redirection requests will be limited until operations stabilize.
International mail and parcels
– Canada Post will work to process a significant accumulation of international mail and parcels currently queued up to enter the postal system.
– Customers should expect delays into 2025.
– The postal system will start accepting new international mail on Monday, December 23.
Neighbourhood Mail
– Date-specific Neighbourhood Mail is not currently available. The service will resume once our operations and volumes have stabilized.
– We will notify customers as soon as we are able to resume date-specific Neighbourhood Mail.
– All other Neighbourhood Mail in our system will be delivered as upon receipt.
Transaction Mail
– Service standards for Transaction Mail will be affected in the short term.
– Transaction Mail trapped in the network by the strike will be processed and delivered on a first-in, first-out basis.
– We will work to move new volume as quickly as possible.
– We’ll notify customers when service standards return to normal.
Steven MacKinnon, the Federal Minister of Labour and Seniors, announced on X on Monday morning, December 16, 2024, the decision made by the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
“The Canada Industrial Relations Board has found that Canada Post and CUPW are unlikely to reach a deal by the end of the year,” Minister MacKinnon stated.
“The Board has therefore ordered an extension of the current collective agreements, and a resumption of operations. An Industrial Inquiry Commission will also be looking into the structural issues of the conflict and will issue a report on May 15. This report will serve as a solid basis for both parties to negotiate their collective agreements.”
CUPW went on a nationwide strike on Friday, November 15, 2024.
