Canada Post workers begin nationwide strike as talks fail
The union for Canada Post workers says their members are now on a “nationwide strike” as negotiations with the Crown corporation failed to reach an agreement by Friday.
Canada Post is warning Canadians will face delays in receiving their mail, and postage already in the system will not be delivered, with a few exceptions.
“Some 55,000 postal workers represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) went on a nationwide strike on Friday, November 15 at 12:01am ET,” the CUPW said in a statement on Friday morning.
Canada Post warned in a statement Friday that “customers will experience delays due to the strike activity,” affecting millions of Canadians and businesses. Service to remote and Northern regions that rely on Canada Post deliveries will be shut down.
There will be no delivery of mail or parcels during the strike and some post offices will close, according to the Crown corporation.
Service guarantees on any items already in the postal system will be affected and no new items will be accepted for mailing until after the strike ends.
However, Canada Post workers will still deliver benefits cheques on Wednesday, Nov. 20, according to a notice posted in the window of a shuttered postal office in Ottawa on Friday.
Nationally, this includes the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, Veteran Affairs Pension Plan and the Canada Child Tax Benefit; in Quebec, the provincial pension plan and child assistance payments will still go out; in Alberta, pension cheques from Alberta Seniors will be delivered as usual.
Canada Post warned that any disrupted postage will be delivered on a first-in, first-out basis once operations resume, but warned the impacts will likely be felt in the days after the strike ends.
CUPW issued
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