The Evolution of Labour Strife at Canada Post: A Look at its Past and Present Status

November 21, 2024 TruthUSA

Over its more than 170 years in existence, Canada Post has faced multiple labour strikes like the one currently halting service across Canada. Canada’s first postal strike was in 1918, during a period of post-war inflation that caused prices to nearly double, drawing some parallels between then and now.

The Crown corporation also saw turbulent times throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with dozens of strikes and a deficit reaching some $500 million in 1980–81.

Canada Post has been diving even deeper into the red in recent years as it struggles to adapt to a changing world. Those pressures include the need to modernize and address wage demands while trying to prevent financial losses.

And although much of Canadian society has come to rely less on the service in the digital age, some age-old facts remain: Small businesses and remote communities have always been among the hardest-hit when postal service is disrupted. Canada Post is the only courier service that delivers parcels to all parts of Canada.

A Canada Post mail carrier delivers fliers on their route in Montreal on Nov. 13, 2024. (The Canadian Press/Christinne Muschi) — A Canada Post mail carrier delivers fliers on their route in Montreal on Nov. 13, 2024. The Canadian Press/Christinne Muschi

Early Days

Pedro da Silva was Canada’s first postman (technically, New France’s first), a designation he officially received in 1705. He was “the man who didn’t believe in winter,” travelling in harsh conditions by dogsled over the frozen Saint Lawrence River or by canoe against strong winds in the summer, writes author Eduardo Galeano in his history book “Faces and Masks.”

U.S. Founding Father Benjamin Franklin opened the first Canadian post office in Halifax in 1753. Franklin was Philadelphia postmaster at the time, working for the British government before he became instrumental in the American Revolution.

Post office in Toronto, circa 1870. (CP Photo/William Notman National Archives of Canada) — Post office in Toronto, circa 1870. CP Photo/William Notman National Archives of Canada

Labour Disruptions, Deficits

On July 22, 1918, the department saw its first labour strike. It lasted only three days in Ontario, but longer out West—Winnipeg was at the epicentre of the dispute, and postal workers there returned to work after nine days but walked off the job again the following year.

It was part of a general phenomenon at the time, as workers across many industries and in many regions staged strikes. Inflation and other pressures following World War I contributed to this unrest.

Canada is seeing a similar increase now in labour disputes, and inflation is again one of the factors, says Barry Prentice, a University of Manitoba professor of supply chain management. Work stoppages this year and last year have included WestJet mechanics, Canadian railway workers, port workers in Vancouver and Montreal, federal public servants, and more.

“We’ve suffered a tremendous amount of inflation, and where you have unions who have power, they’re exercising it to try and catch back up for what they feel they’ve lost,” Prentice told The Epoch Times in an earlier interview.

Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers man the picket line at the entrance to the Eastern Avenue post office in Toronto on Aug. 26, 1991. (CP Photo/Bill Becker) — Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers man the picket line at the entrance to the Eastern Avenue post office in Toronto on Aug. 26, 1991. CP Photo/Bill Becker

The agreement that ended the 1918 postal strike included bonus pay for workers. But labour disputes between the government and postal workers flared up again the following year and occasionally in years thereafter.

A particular period of turmoil hit the service in the 1960s.

When Eric Kierans became Canada’s postmaster general in 1968, “He immediately faced rising deficits, unreliable service standards, labour unrest, and patrons angry at a rate increase,” says a report by think tank Fraser Institute.

It was again a time in which labour disputes had arisen on a broader scale, across various industries. Mechanization was among the factors, as it led to job cuts.

Postal workers had staged some 60 strikes by 1978, says the Fraser Institute report. Workers got higher wages and greater job security in the face of new technology, but the postal service’s deficits also ballooned.

Canada Post has often bounced between deficit and surplus over the course of its long history. From 1900 to 1958, it ran a deficit 14 times, the report says. In the 1960s and 1970s, deficits grew in order of magnitude, reaching $177 million in 1974 and up to $575 million in 1977.

In 1981, Canada Post became a Crown corporation instead of a federal department, and its management was tasked with having the corporation break even within five years. The deficits continued, however, with an average annual deficit of $317 million from 1981 to 1985. This was due in part to a government restraint on prices, but not on wages, which had already been negotiated in union contracts, the report said.

By the late 1980s, it started posting profits again. This was in part due to Canada Post raising its prices. Media reports from the time also cite cost-saving measures such as increased use of super mailboxes.

Another big drop for Canada Post came in 2011. It was on a surplus streak of 16 years, but reported an unconsolidated loss before tax of $327 million that year. It attributed that loss to various factors in its 2011 annual report, including a 25-day labour disruption and an unfavourable Supreme Court decision concerning pay equity, along with the decline of mail volume.

Since 2018, Canada Post has remained in the red annually, with a cumulative loss of about $3 billion before taxes from that year up to 2023.