Canada Post warned customers that rotating strike action by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has resulted in backlogs and delays in mail delivery. The two sides have been working with a special mediator appointed by the government to assist them in reaching negotiated collective agreements.
In the meantime, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers called today for a national overtime ban for both of its major bargaining units at Canada Post. “Postal workers, no matter what their job at Canada Post, will not work more than an eight-hour day and not more than a 40-hour week.”
Canada Post announcement follows:
Canada Post is informing customers that they can expect to see delivery delays as escalating strike activity by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) continues to impact our operations.
Since October 22, CUPW’s rotating strikes have shut down Canada Post’s operations in 52 cities and towns across the country. The union has ramped up their strike activity quickly, adding more communities each day and shutting down major processing centres for 48 hours.
Canada Post is working hard to minimize the service impact to Canadians, but the escalating strikes have shut down our three largest processing facilities in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal for up to 48 hours. Combined, those three plants can process a million parcels and packets a day for communities across the country.
At this point there is a backlog of over 150 trailers in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal of items waiting to be unloaded and processed, with more arriving every day. While the rotating strikes continue, we are making every effort to work through the backlog as quickly as possible, but delays will continue.
We are working hard to reach an agreement with the assistance of the special mediator. We apologize to our customers and will continue to work to reduce the resulting delays.
We will continue to keep you informed of the latest developments on this page. If you have not done so already, please register there for regular updates by email. We will also post information about service disruptions resulting from rotating strikes on Twitter using the handle @canadapostcorp.
Thank you for your continued patience.
SOURCE: Canada Post Email Update
