Canada Post workers could strike again. If they do, the public will see red

Globe and Mail

20-05-2025

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.