Years after the longest Canada Post strike on record came to an end, a government report summarizing media coverage of the shutdown concluded “most of the effects of the strike were temporary” and only lasted “for a short time” after staff went back to work.
But that was in December 1975.
This year’s strike has created a backlog of a “couple million” parcels during the busy holiday shipping season, according to Canada Post. Employees have been ordered back to work on Tuesday, but the company said it will “take some time” to clear the packages and letters that have been trapped for weeks.
It also warned that any new mail likely won’t make it to its destination by Christmas, and delays are expected to continue into January.
“It’s going to take some time to ramp up again. It’s not like just plugging a fridge back in,” company spokesperson Jon Hamilton said Monday.
“The last thing we want to do right now is make commitments to Canadians and not live up to that. We’ve already disappointed and impacted so many Canadians with the strike that we want to be up front to say, ‘Here’s what we can do and here’s what we can’t take,’ and earn that trust back.”
Canada Post won’t start accepting new mail until Thursday to prioritize existing mail, a statement said. Service guarantees will stay suspended.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) ordered Canada Post employees to return to work on Tuesday under their existing contracts, which have been extended until May to allow the bargaining process to resume.
On Monday, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) said it believes the order forcing employees back to work is “unlawful.” A statement said “constitutional challenge to this process” is scheduled for mid-January.
“Our fight for justice is far from over,” it read.
Ian Lee, an associate professor at Carleton University who wrote his PhD thesis on the future of Canada Post, said he believes it will take up to 10 business days for the company to catch up on deliveries once work resumes on Dec. 17 — meaning some mail won’t make it for the holidays.
No new mail while backlog work begins
Canada Post is going to have to catch up on two kinds of deliveries: the mail that’s been stuck in the system since the strike began, plus everything people have been waiting to send because new mail wasn’t being accepted during the strike.
Hamilton said Canada Post needs to prioritize “a couple million” backlogged parcels first. Those packages were moved to a secure space during the strike, he said, so they’ll have to be pulled back into processing centres before being sent to depots and out for delivery.
They’ll be cleared on a “first in, first out” basis — meaning the oldest ones should get priority.
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon announces he’s asking the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order operations at Canada Post to resume if it agrees that the contract dispute is at an impasse. MacKinnon also says he is tapping an independent commissioner to examine the structure of the corporation, along with the collective agreement, and produce recommendations ‘on the way forward.’
Even once new mail starts getting through on Thursday, Hamilton said the company will be prioritizing rural and remote communities that have been without any deliveries since mid-November.
New packages sent on or after Thursday likely won’t arrive for the holidays.
“There’s only so many delivery days left before now and Christmas,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult for us to accept new items and get them to their destinations in time.”
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Ian Lee, an associate professor at Carleton University who wrote his PhD thesis on the future of Canada Post, said he thinks the Crown corporation will need at least 10 business days to work through the existing mail — which would mean it won’t be caught up until the first week of January.
“There’s just so much out there in the system at this time of the year because it is the Christmas period. So I think there’s going to be people that don’t receive their mail [in time],” he said.
“My advice would be if you’re [delivering] local … I would just get in the car.”
The strike has hit small businesses and rural communities particularly hard. Some entrepreneurs say they’ve lost 70 per cent of their business, while other residents have been missing out on deliveries of critical supplies like medicine.
Losses go beyond just mail
After previous strikes, it took several weeks for deliveries to recover.
Rotating strikes in June 2011 created a backlog of roughly 40 million letters. It wasn’t until mid-July that a CP spokesperson gave an interview saying service for most of the country was “back to normal.”
Canada Post was left with what it described as a “historic” backlog of parcels after another set of rotating strikes from Oct. 22 to Nov. 27, 2018. It took three weeks for the company to start guaranteeing normal holiday delivery service for most of the country again.
The report summarizing the effects of the 1975 six-week strike said it affected people beyond their mail and their wallets — there were emotional losses that couldn’t be recovered.
“Communication with distant correspondents was severed. Routine dealings with business and government were disrupted as, for example, licences expired and time-sensitive notices did not arrive,” it read.
“As this disruption occurred just before the Christmas holiday season, the customary exchange of good wishes was jeopardized when greeting cards could not be mailed.
“Such a situation can have a strong influence on sentimental feelings of householders which can result in a lingering resentment against the post office and the government in general.”
