Westlock residents have begun preparations for another potential postal outage after the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) announced a overtime ban early Friday, May 23.
Many people are left wondering what will happen to the mail system and the millions of Canadians that rely on it, including many of the small businesses and residents that utilize Canada Post here in Westlock.
Graeme Harrington, president of the Westlock Chamber of Commerce, talked about the general disruptiveness and inconvenience this will have on businesses in the area. He talks about his own business as partner at PT Law Barristers and Solicitors, "That's my business and we send and receive a lot of mail... in the absence of mail, we have to resort to courier services which are generally more expensive."
Harrington talked about how businesses are turning to digital means to get their messages across, "A combination of trying to do things remotely or digitally as much as possible.
"You just have to look at the alternatives, whether they're physical delivery of documents or courier services, we'll see an uptick in those."
Early on Friday May 23, the CUPW called for a nationwide ban on overtime for employees in the urban, rural and suburban areas after giving Canada Post written notices on Monday that employees at both will be initiating a strike.
There are currently no rotating strikes or national work stoppage but people have already begun to prepare for it, “Canada Post has already seen parcel and mail volumes decline significantly as customers prepare for another potential labour disruption.” said the CUPW in an earlier statement.
The Village of Clyde post office will not be affected by the strike and will still be open for deliveries.
On Wednesday May 21, Canada Post presented a new global offer to CUPW that is currently under review. The offer states that employees would keep their:
- Defined benefit pension
- Industry leading job security provisions
- Health benefits and post-retirement benefits
- Up to seven weeks of vacation and pre-retirement leave
- Cost of living allowance that protects against the effects of unforeseen inflation
- Work schedules
However, additional changes have been made. The wage offer would increase for current employees yearly with them receiving a total compounded increase of 13.59 per cent split across their first four years of employment. This deal also included “better income replacement for leave under the short-term disability program and six added personal days locked into the collective agreement.”
Since the last global offer, Canada Post withdrew its new health benefits plan, changes to employees’ post-retirement benefits and enrolling future employees into the defined contribution plan.
Part of this global plan comes from the corporation's proposal to compete with other delivery companies in Canada. One of the biggest takeaways from this plan is to increase from a five-day delivery system to seven days a week. They have decided to create stable part-time jobs on a flexible basis with between 15 and 40 work hours per week and health and pension benefits.
In their 2023 annual report, Canada Post reported a loss of $748 million dollars, a 26 per cent increase from the 2022 year. They have also seen a deep decline in the amount of letters that have been sent out. The peak was back in 2006 when they had delivered an estimated 5.5 billion letters but since then has decreased drastically as electronic communications became more prominent. But in 2023, they only saw 2.2 billion letters delivered but over 200,000 new addresses added since 2006.
With the changing needs of the letter industry, they invested more into the parcel service. New at home businesses needed items delivered to different parts of the country fast but of course, competition rose too. Low-cost independent delivery operators gained momentum with their evening and weekend work hours plus using contracted drivers for lower prices. Canada Post quickly went from holding 62 per cent of the estimated market share in parcel delivery to 29 per cent.
Due to their yearly losses, Canada Post has had to make tough decisions regarding their financial well-being. They have estimated that they will fall below their required operating and reserve cash by early 2025 without borrowing and refinancing. However, the corporation already has $1 billion in loans and borrowing, half of which is due for repayment by July.
They estimate that they will need an additional $1 billion in new borrowings or liquidity measures for 2025 and another for 2026. This would include refinancing the $500 million in existing debt. These funds primarily go towards maintaining operations and meeting employee obligations.
In order to take control of their investments, the crown corporation outlined that they plan on scaling back costs that are within their control and focus on increasing revenue where possible like exploring new streams.
