‘Feeling the pinch’: Potential postal strike may be first of many, Manitoba prof says

The City of Winnipeg says it has contingency plans in case of a Canada Post work stoppage.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers said Tuesday that it has issued a 72-hour strike notice, meaning workers will legally be in a strike position as early as Friday.

A wide range of city services use the mail — for everything from parking tickets to water and waste bills to pet licences. In most cases, the city says there are alternate options to sign up for online service, as well as opportunities to pay bills or receive information in person.

If you’re concerned about a service being affected, you can visit the city’s website for more information.

A supply chain management professor at the University of Manitoba says strikes and lockouts — like the two port actions in Vancouver and Montreal, as well as a potential postal strike — are something Canadians should expect to see more of in the future.

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“Something I think is worth contemplating — why are we seeing so many strikes across the country? There is a real problem in terms of affordability, and people are feeling the pinch,” Barry Prentice told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Winnipeg.

“People are needing more money in order to feel that they can survive, whether it be food prices or high rents or mortgagees they have to pay, so it’s not unreasonable that we’re seeing this …and I think we’re going to see a lot more.”

Prentice said the current situation with Canada Post has been exacerbated, in part, by the fact that Canadians generally don’t use the post office as regularly as they once did.

“They used to have a complete monopoly,” he said.

“If we go back 50 years, I remember the days when the strikes would occur, and (workers) would extract all kinds of concessions and wages from the post office… and the post office could pay for it, because they had a monopoly. They don’t have a monopoly anymore.”

Prentice said the future for Canada Post is uncertain, as the Crown corporation is being outperformed by other providers.

“The package side has become their mainstay in the last 20 years but now the competition is eating into that… and the union seems to be resistant to the kind of changes that are necessary to stay competitive, which is seven-day-a-week delivery and evening delivery,” Prentice said.

“The service is not compelling me to want to use the post office, and the prices… they’ve got to be competitive.”

Sean Tugby, president of the union’s Winnipeg chapter, told 680 CJOB’s The Start that Tuesday’s announcement has him hopeful that the two sides will come to an agreement.

“There’s been two global offers through Canada Post and two retorts through our national union, so there is conversation going on,” Tugby said.

“They’re having the conversations — hopefully it doesn’t come to a job action. Maybe this is the catalyst it needs to kind of hammer something out.”

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