Canada Post workers will begin striking at midnight Friday unless new contract agreements are reached before then, putting customers at risk of delivery delays, the government-owned carrier announced Monday.
The carrier said customers should expect either a national labor disruption or rotating strike activity. For a national disruption, parcels and mail won't be delivered and no new items will be accepted until it ends. During a rotating strike, Canada Post plans to continue delivering in unaffected areas while working to limit service issues.
"Following either a rotating strike or a national labour disruption, processing and delivery may take some time to fully return to normal," Canada Post said.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers issued the 72-hour strike notices in part due to concerns Canada Post "may unilaterally change working conditions and suspend employee benefits" once the current agreements expire Friday, according to an emailed statement from the union.
"There is still time to return to the bargaining table," said CUPW, which represents over 55,000 of the carrier's workers. "We remain committed to negotiating collective agreements and urge the employer to do the same."
Canada Post paused contract negotiations last week in order to prepare more effective proposals, as progress remains limited on issues like weekend delivery operations. The carrier and CUPW aim to reach two deals, one covering workers in urban postal operations and another for rural and suburban mail carriers.
If the parties fail to reach agreements by Friday, Canada Post will face another employees' strike just months after one occurred in the thick of peak season. The disruption cost small businesses, which rely heavily on the carrier for shipping within the country, over $1 billion in lost revenue and sales, per the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
"We’re urging both parties to work through their differences and avoid any disruption that would throw the operations of hundreds of thousands of Canadian small businesses in further jeopardy," Dan Kelly, the group's president, said in a news release Thursday.
