Christmas mail deliveries in jeopardy

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/11/2018 (2001 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada Post has warned it can’t guarantee holiday parcels will be delivered in time for Christmas, as a strike by postal workers entered its fourth week.

The warning was issued in a statement late Wednesday, and it surprised workers on picket lines and union officials as rotating walkouts continued Thursday at processing plants in Montreal and Winnipeg, as well as at smaller locations in Ontario, British Columbia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.

For customers, the statement didn’t pack as severe a punch, because many of them will rely on private courier services to pick up the slack.

At least one major Winnipeg-based parcel-shipping service to Ukraine said its distribution schedule to Eastern Europe doesn’t use Canada Post.

“Same friendly phone number as before, as well as the same friendly staff. Delivery by sea Nov. 19 and delivery by air Dec. 6,” company president William Strauss said Thursday.

The service, which was operated for decades by the former Ukrainian Voice newspaper, was picked up by Trident Parcel Services this fall.

The Free Press obtained a notice that Canada Post issued to postal outlets Wednesday: “The post office will no longer accept any foreign mail for the duration of rotating strikes by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), now in their 24th day.”

The notice said management “took the unusual step of detailing a take-it-or-leave-it contract to postal workers.” That offer was widely reported by media Wednesday.

Letters and parcels were reported to be backlogged at mail distribution centres in Los Angeles and Seattle, Canada Post said in the notice.

“We have been forced to advise international posts, including the U.S. Postal Service, that we are unable to accept incoming items until further notice… If we are unable to clear the backlog and resume normal operations quickly, the large incoming holiday parcel volumes will severely compromise our ability to deliver the quickly approaching Black Friday and Cyber Monday rush.”

Nearly 500 tractor-trailer loads of parcels and packages were backlogged at the country’s major postal distribution centres Thursday.

Canada Post officials could not be reached to comment on the notice, nor did the document appear to have been posted to its website by late Thursday.

The local union president dismissed it as a pressure tactic to turn public support against striking workers.

“What are they going to do? Leave the ships at the docks and the trailers on the tarmacs? I can’t imagine they won’t accept any international mail,” said Lisa Peterson, president of CUPW Local 856.

The timing coincided with reports that online sales giant eBay had called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to legislate an end to the labour dispute before the holiday shopping season peaks later this month.

“Could it be that eBay report contacting the government and this statement were just a coincidence? Will any of us ever know?” Peterson said.

Picketing workers said the only statement distributed by Canada Post in recent days was the standard warning issued every time there’s a labour dispute. It reads priority post deliveries, normally made within two days, could be delayed.

“This is misinformation being given out by Canada Post, and it’s meant to scare and anger the public. I work in retail and we accept mail and send out mail every day,” said Joanne Fontaine, who works at one of the three corporate postal outlets in Winnipeg.

At one franchise outlet that doesn’t employ CUPW workers, a clerk handed out a flyer. Issued in October, it sets out holiday mailing dates, most of them clustered in the first two weeks of December. She said she wasn’t aware of any changes.

The rotating strikes have hit every part of the country and generally last 24 hours, with information on the next location for the strikes posted between 10 p.m. and midnight on CUPW’s national website.

The busiest day of the year for Canada Post is traditionally Dec. 4, when post offices deliver 1.8 million parcels. Annual parcel revenues were $2.1 billion last year.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca