All mail delivery stopped except social assistance cheques

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Pontiac’s Canada Post drivers joined the 55,000 or so postal workers across the country who walked off the job last week as part of a nation-wide strike after failing to reach a new collective agreement with their employer.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) representing Canada Post employees has been in negotiations with the federal government since Nov. 2023 around issues including pay, health benefits, pension, and whether Canada Post will shift to delivering seven days a week, something the Crown corporation feels it needs to do to be able to compete with other delivery services like Purolator and FedEx.

For the six delivery drivers who spent Friday morning on strike outside the Shawville post office, a secure and reliable pension was the number one thing they hoped would come of the negotiations, that and protection of their five-day work week.

“A lot of people always say, ‘Oh, you make enough money,’ but for me it’s not the money, it’s the pension,” said Kayla Wilson, a driver for the Shawville post office. “I’m young and I’d like to have a pension to look forward to when I’m older.”

Canada Post’s latest offer, made last week, included an 11.5 per cent wage increase over four years, as well as protection of the current stable pension plan for current employees.

However, according to information from the union, the corporation proposed a less predictable, market-dependent pension plan for future employees. The union is concerned Canada Post will gradually phase out the stable pension plan while those who paid into it are still living off it in their retirement, which could pose problems. 

For Terry Matte, another Shawville driver, this is scary.

“I took this job for the pension,” she said. “At the age that I’m at, you’ve got to have something steady.”

Andrew Lang lives in Shawville but delivers mail out of the Lac-des-Loups post office, where no other mail delivery service operates. On top of a stable pension, he’s hoping to be accurately compensated for the time he works.

“I’ve got 307 addresses I’m responsible for. I could have 60 on a normal Monday and I’m expecting anywhere from 150 parcels on a single day in the month leading up to Christmas,” Lang said, explaining that most of the overtime he works during busy periods is not compensated.

“I would much rather be sitting in my car right now and delivering the mail, and seeing the people I deliver mail to. That’s a part I enjoy about the job is the people. I don’t enjoy standing on the side of the road,” he added, a sentiment with which every driver gathered agreed.

Media reports late Monday evening suggested Canada Post and the union had yet to reach an agreement, and the two sides were still far apart at the table.

As the strike continues, transportation of all mail has been put on hold. Government social assistance cheques, however, including pension, child benefit, and old age security cheques, are scheduled to be delivered to residents this week.

Are you a Pontiac resident somehow affected by this strike? Tell us how by writing to sophie@theequity.ca.