After going on a strike last month, Canada Post workers will be returning to work with plans to be fully operational starting on Dec. 20.
President of the Canadian Union of Postal Worker (CUPW) Calgary Local 710, Wycliffe Odour, explained that the group has been in negotiations with Canada Post since last year. With no progress made at the bargaining table, this eventually led to a strike mandate vote in October, followed by a 72-hour notice, which led to a full strike on Nov. 15.
“It was sad the way it ended because Canada Post has not been negotiating in good faith, and we’ve not had a contract since 2011,” he said “[…] December 17, as per the order of the Canada Industrial Relation Board (CIRB), our members went back to work, and that was due to the minister asking the CIRB to intervene.
“Our demands were very fair; fair wages, safer working conditions, and the ability retire in dignity. That was never met.”
With their return to work, Odour said Canada Post will start picking up and accepting items starting on Dec. 20. Following dealing with their backlog for the first 48 hours of going back to work, he outlined that services for rural communities like Cochrane will continue as normal.
“There’s a huge backlog in terms of work that needs to be done,” he said. “What we are currently working on, and there’s the also a challenge with the holidays falling in during the middle of the work week, we will try to get whatever we can as and push as much as we can during this week and the beginning of next week.”
Looking to the coming year, Odour said conciliator and negotiator William Kaplan will be a working on the future of the postal strike.
“Our collective agreement has been reinstated until May 22, 2025,” Odour said. “And what that means is that [Kaplan] is supposed to report back to the minister on May 15, 2025, and then we’ll see what becomes of that.”
Looking back, Odour said the strike was something that they did not take lightly. He notes that outside of all of their members mobilizing under their shared goal of having their demands met, the response from the public was overwhelming.
“Many time we were concerned that due to the disruption of services, the public may not respond accordingly,” he said. “But the response was just massive. We were getting calls, honks, delivery of food items, and cheers from kids who dropped off their Santa letters.
“That was just an amazing way of coming together.”
Within the membership, he said that there has been mixed feelings toward Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon’s intervention.
“After going to work through over four weeks without pay, we were out there in the coldest days and then all that seemed to have been lost because of the intervention,” he said. “I think the one thing that we hold on to is that [Kaplan] is highly respected, and so we’re holding on to the fact that he could meet us at some point where our demands were.”
Odour adds there was a point in time where members have been laid off during the strike. He said that they have all been reinstated.
“Everything is back to normal now,” he said. “Our rights have been reinstated, including our benefits. We were cut off from our benefits, and so those who really needed prescriptions or were scheduled for surgery were not able to do that.
“So now, they’re back and they’re able to continue with their normal lives. So, it’s going to be a good holidays seasons starting next week.”
