Postal workers across the country are on strike as of this morning after the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and Canada Post failed to settle.
The action comes after the union issued a 72-hour strike notice to the country’s national postal service on Tuesday.
In a statement, CUPW said that “a strike is a last resort.”
“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,” CUPW said.
Canada Post said in a statement that “customers will experience delays due to the strike activity.”
“Shutting down facilities across the country will affect Canada Post’s entire national network,” Canada Post said.
Though most Canadians don’t use Canada Post as often as they once did, many small businesses still depend on it: a survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) found 79 percent of small businesses rely on Canada Post to do business, while three-quarters of small firms said they will be negatively affected by a work stoppage.
Canada Post said shutting down facilities will affect its national network, with processing and delivery of mail possibly needing time to return to normal once the strike is over.
CUPW represents more than 55,000 workers across Canada.
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