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Picket lines and the fight for the future of Canada Post

Clad in a yellow jacket to stave off the first fall rains, Doug Kellam rallied striking Canada Post workers in East Vancouver.

Kellam has worked for Canada Post for eight years. He’s back on the picket lines for the second time since the difficult round of negotiations started about 22 months ago.

He’s one of more than 55,000 workers who walked off the job after the federal government directed Canada Post to end home delivery and move non-urgent mail by ground instead of air.

“None of us want to be out on a picket line,” he said. “We’re prepared to fight, but nobody’s happy to be here.”

Government Transformation Minister Joël Lightbound said in a statement the Crown corporation is “effectively insolvent,” estimating these changes could save Canada Post more than $420 million per year, or about 18 per cent of current spending.

“Canada Post must take decisive action to deliver the services Canadians need in a way that is financially sustainable,” Lightbound said, adding the corporation “is a vital national institution worth preserving.”

For Kellam, the announcement was a call to action. He said he headed back to the picket line to fight for his job.

“The Government of Canada declared war on us,” he said. “We had no choice.”

Jennifer Savage, national director for the Pacific region with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, or CUPW, said workers were surprised by Lightbound’s announcement.

“It’s just further government interference into our negotiations and another way for Canada Post to not actually sit at the table,” Savage said.

The strike promises to test the future of the postal service and its mandate to provide postal services to all Canadians in a secure and financially self-sustaining way.

Peggy Nash, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said it’s a “conflicting mandate.”

Nash said the only way the postal service could generate enough revenue to be self-sustaining would be to expand services dramatically or charge exorbitant rates.

“Other countries have gotten creative and have added optional services that can be revenue-generating,” Nash said. “I don’t see that kind of creativity with Canada Post.”

In 2024, Canada Post had $6.1 billion in revenue and $446 million in investing income. It spent $7.4 billion, leaving a pre-tax loss of $841 million.

The union has suggested Canada Post make several changes to its business model, including expanding into public banking to increase its revenue, like postal services have done in Switzerland, New Zealand and France.

Nash said the postal service was never built to maximize revenue or make a profit.

“They were never designed to be a business; they were designed to be a service,” Nash said. “If your goal is to meet the needs of every Canadian, that’s different than maximizing profit for shareholders.”

Ottawa launched a review of the corporation’s mandate Oct. 1. The federal government reviews the Canadian Postal Service Charter — and its mandate — every five years, Public Services and Procurement Canada spokesperson Nicole Allen said in an email.

Allen said the department was considering holding a public consultation to help “redefine a vision for the future of Canada Post.”

But last year, she said, an industrial inquiry commission studying Canada Post considered public comments before making several recommendations — one of which was ending home mail delivery.

A full review of the Canadian Postal Service Charter will still occur and there may be additional public consultations, Allen said. But the government “is prioritizing the implementation of the [commission’s] recommendations.”

The commission also recommended Canada Post lift a moratorium on closing rural post offices, streamline the way postage increases are approved and negotiate changes to the postal workers’ collective agreements.

‘A frustrating process’

The commission published the recommendations in May.

CUPW’s Savage said the union had submitted a revised proposal in negotiations in August and was waiting for the corporation to make its own counter-offer when Lightbound announced Ottawa wanted to implement the recommendations.

“All of a sudden, Canada Post said they needed additional time to review and change up their offer,” she said. “So it’s a bit of a frustrating process. We served notice to bargain almost two years ago, but we still don’t have any resolution.”

The prolonged job action is hard on the public and hard on members, Savage said, adding strike pay is just over $56 per day.

Savage said major sticking points are changes that would increase the number of part-time or temporary workers, wage increases that address the cost of living and two-tier wages.

Savage said it’s up to the company to address these issues at the table.

“The big ask is for Ottawa to stay out of the negotiations and tell Canada Post to get back to the table,” Savage said. “We want to negotiate these settlements and give some stability for our members and for the Canadian public.

Canada Post spokesperson Lisa Liu said the strike will worsen the Crown corporation’s financial situation.

“We are disappointed that, in response to the government’s reforms, the union chose to launch a national strike,” the statement said.

According to Canada Post, the union asked for benefit improvements, four more paid personal days for a total of 17 and restrictions on contracting out services. Canada Post said the union also asked that letter carriers continue to be paid for eight hours of work even if they finish delivery early.

The corporation said the union’s asks would cost more than $700 million per year.

“The company cannot agree to CUPW’s counter-offers of Aug. 20, which maintained or hardened the union’s position on many items,” Liu’s statement said.

‘Canary in the coal mine’

Nathan Prier, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, or CAPE, said the labour dispute signals a shift in how the federal government spends on public services.

“We think that they’re enabling the privatization of the post service here, just like they’re enabling the privatization of public sector work more broadly,” Prier said.

He added the long, difficult negotiations set the tone for federal public sector unions currently entering bargaining.

CAPE is the third-largest federal public sector union, representing more than 27,000 employees, including economists, translators and policy analysts. The union is heading into bargaining before contracts expire next year.

Prier said the union stands in solidarity with the striking Canada Post workers and some members will join CUPW on picket lines.

Prier said he considers Canada Post a public service and the government’s expectation that it must sustain itself is unreasonable.

“There’s a public interest behind it,” Prier said, “and if this was treated and funded as a proper public service, then we wouldn’t find ourselves in the situation that we’re in right now.”

He added the stalled negotiations are a sign that Ottawa isn’t ready to spend on public services at the same time it commits to ramping up defence funding.

“We’re really worried that the government is going to divert a bunch of resources that uphold critical programs for millions of Canadians to bloat the military industrial complex,” he said. “Canada Post is the canary in the coal mine here.”



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