Canada Post workers have gone on strike

The 55,000 Canada Post workers represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) went on strike as of 9:01 PST tonight (Thursday).

This includes 204 members located in Prince George, Vanderhoof, Fraser Lake, Burns Lake and Mackenzie.

The strike action comes after several days of intense negotiations involving federal mediators…..but the union says the two sides remain far apart.

In a statement from CUPW, “After a year of bargaining with little progress, postal workers made the difficult decision to strike. Canada Post had the opportunity to prevent this strike, but it has refused to negotiate real solutions to the issues postal workers face every day. Instead, Canada Post left us no choice when it threatened to change our working conditions and leave our members exposed to layoffs.”

According to a news release from Canada Post “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. 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. Processing and delivery may take some time to fully return to normal.”