Canada Post

Striking Canada Post staff must return to work, labour board rules

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Striking Canada Post staff must return to work, labour board rules

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Canada Post delivery staff are expected to return to work on Dec. 17, despite the fact that by all accounts, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and Canada Post are far from an agreement.

CUPW members across the country have been on strike since Nov. 15, and the parties remain far apart on issues including wage increases and staff planning for weekend deliveries. Since the strike, nonprofit organizations have seen a significant drop in donations, small business advocacy groups have raised concerns about disruption to the holiday shopping season and people living in rural and remote areas have struggled to access supplies. Govern- ment services such as deliv- ery of renewed passports and permanent resident cards have also been interrupted – during peak travel season. La- bour Minister Steven MacKin- non, who had previously ruled out legislating striking postal workers back to work, raised those issues when he told reporters on Dec. 15 that he would refer the dispute to the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB).

“It is my view … that the parties are at an impasse. I have asked the CIRB, if they also determine that there is an impasse, to resume and continue their operations under the existing collective agreement until May 22, 2025,” he said.

Shortly before midnight on Dec. 15, CBC reported that after two days of hearings, the CIRB ruled that there was indeed an impasse. Mail delivery was set to resume on Dec. 17 at 8 a.m. No further information was available as of the QCT’s deadline.

“Canadians are fed up,” the minister said. “As minister of labour, I have a responsibility to protect Canadians, the public interest, by maintain- ing industrial peace and respecting the rights of the par- ties involved in this dispute. That is why I am here today to announce that I am providing a solution to promote favourable conditions for the resolution of this labour dispute and thus protect the interests of Canadians. Not only have the parties been unable to show any progress towards an agreement, the federal mediator has now informed me that the negotiations between both parties are now, in fact, going in the wrong direction.”

MacKinnon mandated labour commissioner William Kaplan to meet with both parties in the coming months to try to find a long-term solution at the negotiating table. “The government is commit- ted to collective bargaining. It’s not easy, but we’ve seen time and time again that it produces the strongest enduring agreements to the benefit of workers and employers alike.” In the interim, MacKinnon encouraged Canadians to donate to charities however possible.

CUPW national president Jan Scott called MacKinnon’s proposal “troubling.”

“We denounce in the strongest terms this assault on our constitutionally protected right to free and fair collective bargain and our right to strike,” she said in a statement. “We are going to continue to fight hard to get good negotiated collective agreements for our 55,000 members. We will continue to fight for fair wages, safe working conditions and to retire with dignity. We have been pushing Canada Post for years to expand services to generate more revenue. We must stand strong in the face of this abuse of power.”

Canada Post said it “looked forward to welcoming employees back to work” while remaining committed to the negotiations. Post office pick-up and dropoff are expected to resume on Dec. 19.

Striking Canada Post staff must return to work, labour board rules Read More »

CSL incident reveals delays in Canada Post delivery to Israel

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

Côte St. Luc resident Elaine Lallouz told The Suburban she was shocked and confused last week when she went to the Canada Post franchise at Pharmaprix in Quartier Cavendish to send mail to Israel. Lallouz told us that an employee at the franchise told her that Canada Post was not sending letters to Israel whatsoever. The resident said she was told this twice by the employee, last Wednesday Sept. 11 and Thursday Sept. 12.

“I was told ‘nothing’s going to leave here to Israel.’ I said,’what do you mean, nothing?’ She said ‘I was told nothing can be sent from here.’” The resident said she preferred to send the several pieces of mail, given to her by her aunt, at a Canada Post outlet rather than drop them in a mailbox, as some of the mail included cheques. “Everything was ready, the stamps were on it. But I was told, ‘no, no, no, no, nothing goes to Israel!’ The employee was then directing me to leave.”

The Suburban decided to accompany Lallouz to Pharmaprix where we overheard someone from the pharmacy seem to confirm that people were being told letters were not going to Israel. The person declined to go on the record. The Canada Post employee was pointed out to us, and when The Suburban asked her to confirm that letters were not going to Israel, she vehemently insisted we go to a Canada Post post office in Côte St. Luc or the company’s website to get the answer.

“Is there no mail service to Israel?” we asked. “It’s a very simple question.”

“Sir, go to the Canada Post website,” the employee said.

As it turns out, the Canada Post website says, and Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather told us as well, that as is the case in other countries, there is a “yellow alert” as far as mail to Israel is concerned, that took effect Sept. 11, the first day Lallouz went to the Pharmaprix franchise, indicating that mail could indeed be sent, but “expect delays for letters and parcels. Increased safety protocols and flight restrictions into Israel are creating delays for customers.”

Housefather did not indicate he had received any complaints that CSL residents were being told mail was not going to Israel.

But on Friday, Canada Post spokesperson Phil Rogers confirmed to The Suburban that delivery to Israel did stop just before Sept. 11, at which time “mail and parcel delivery to Israel resumed. In August, delivery to Israel was suspended due to lack of available transportation,” he added. “A yellow delivery service alert is currently issued for this country as increased safety protocols and flights restrictions into Israel are creating delays for customers. The delivery service alerts are being posted and updated on our Delivery service alerts webpage. We promptly verified with our colleagues at the post office you mentioned and can confirm they are aware of this delivery service update. If customers have questions about their postal services, they can contact Canada Post’s Customer Service team online at canadapost.ca/support or by telephone at 1-866-607-6301 (TTY: 1-800-267-2797).”

We also found out, from an Alberta Jewish News story, that Canada Post mail delivery to Israel, as well as the West Bank and Gaza, had also stopped on Oct. 12, 2023, five days after the Hamas terrorist attack, for the same reason cited by Rogers.

Lallouz says she is still skeptical.

“Everything’s delayed because Canada Post stopped everything. We have family in Israel and a lot of people are suffering.” n

CSL incident reveals delays in Canada Post delivery to Israel Read More »

Postal strike halts mail delivery across Canada

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

Postal strike halts mail delivery across Canada

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Mail delivery across the country has been essentially paralyzed since 55,000 unionized Canada Post staff walked off the job on Nov. 15.

“After a year of bargaining with little progress, postal workers made the difficult decision to strike. … Canada Post left us no choice when it threatened to change our working conditions and leave our members exposed to layoffs,” Yannick Scott, national director (Montreal Metro region) of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), said in a statement on the day the strike began.

In a notice on its website, Canada Post warned people planning to send and receive mail to “be prepared for possible delays.

“Mail and parcels will not be processed or delivered for the duration of the national strike, and some post offices will be closed. Service guarantees will be impacted for items already in the postal network. No new items will be accepted until the national disruption is over,” the statement said.

Although people will not be able to send mail for the duration of the strike, those who receive Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan payments from the federal government as cheques will still receive their cheques, due to an essential services agreement between CUPW and the government. Quebec social assistance cheques as well as cheques from the Quebec workplace safety commission (CNESST) and auto insurance authority (SAAQ), the provincial indemnity program for victims of crime and certain other government programs will still be distributed; people can also opt to pick up their cheque in person at a Service Québec centre on presentation of government-issued photo ID or designate a proxy to do so.

Canada Post warned that once the strike ends, it may take some time to fully resume service. “Items will be delivered as quickly as possible once operations resume. All mail and parcels in the postal network will be secured and delivered as quickly as possible on a first-in, first-out basis once operations resume. However, a national strike of any length will impact service to Canadians well after the strike activity ends. Shutting down facilities across the country will affect Canada Post’s entire national network. Processing and delivery may take some time to fully return to normal.”

Federal labour minister Steven MacKinnon has ruled out passing a law to force postal personnel back to work “for the moment.”

“We’re putting all our efforts into [discussions] around the table to facilitate a negotiated agreement,” he told reporters.

No CUPW or Canada Post representative had responded to requests for further comment from the QCT by press time.

Postal strike halts mail delivery across Canada Read More »

Scroll to Top