STRIKE UPDATE (Oct 9, 2025): Shift to Rotating Strikes Starting Oct. 11
Summary: The discussion centered around a shift to rotating strikes starting October 11. Participants exchanged brief, unspecified dialogues regarding the implications or logistics of these upcoming actions. dinomitesales and several other participants engaged in dialogues about the ongoing situation, but specific details of the exchanges weren't captured in the provided content.
Today, we are announcing that starting Saturday, October 11 at 6 AM local time, CUPW will move from a nation-wide strike action to rotating strikes. Locals that will be rotating out will be informed closer to the time when they will take action.
While this will start mail and parcels moving, while continuing our struggle for good collective agreements and a strong public postal service.
We did not take the decision to move to a nation-wide strike lightly. Postal workers would much rather have new collective agreements and be delivering mail instead of taking strike action.
Yet, we could not stand by as the Government announced its plans to allow Canada Post to gut our postal service and slash thousands of our jobs. Contract after contract, this employer has sought to chip away at postal services, worker rights and good jobs, and its latest offers are an outright attack on public service. The Government’s announcement on September 25th also emboldened Canada Post to continue making a mockery of the bargaining process.
We want to thank our members for standing strong, the public for their support, as well as the New Democratic Party and Bloc Québécois for holding this government accountable. We have a follow-up meeting with Minister Lightbound’s office next week.
We will continue our fight for strong public services, good jobs, and a sustainable public post office for all Canadians.
In solidarity,
ilikehockeyjerseys
·9 months agoDoes the rotating strike include the "flyer ban"?
Maybe that was a compromise. Negate on the flyer ban, but do a rotating strike to save face and seem like they aren't walking back on the full strike.
If the flyer ban is still in effect, I think you guys might be right about the high possibility of a lockout.
dinomitesales
OP9 months agoBoth the flyer ban and overtime ban are over. The only strike action now is the rotating strikes - flyers will still be delivered.
And for anyone wanting to drop off mail at a post office you don't need to wait until Oct 15, they have all been instructed to start accepting mail ASAP as of Oct 11. Post offices are supposed to be open a minimum of 4 hours on Thanksgiving Monday as well.
easoss
·9 months agoMy cousin works for the PO and said to me the carriers have been told to prioritize packages and flyers. Those are the areas of highest profit.
widgetc
·9 months ago"CP will defintely lose more money in rotating strikes because they have to pay wages again but new business remains very low. It will also force the gov't to step in more quickly."
Or They may go back to full strike just before the Christmas rush.
Back to work legislation comes with arbitration CP will not want that because it is unpredictable and they need change to move toward balancing the budget.
If CUPW knows it is losing in public opinion and member support then going to arbitration might be it's only hope of gaining much.
The situation is very unpredictable.
marnotom!
·9 months agoCanada Post rejected a CUPW request for binding arbitration in June.
stringers_books_and_collectibles
·9 months agoI agree, lock them out. Enough. And I'm still selling, or trying to. Cupw has made it quite evident that they don't care about our businesses, why should I care about their jobs (last year they waited 4 months to strike, so they could do it at Christmas time)? I don't want rotating strikes for the next 20 years, cupw will never compromise.
edubb101
·9 months agoIt's interesting that the rotating strike descision came after the unions meeting with the Government. Its all on how you want to interpret that I guess. I see this as slowly moving in the right direction but still lots of work to do. That being said I'm a glass half full type of person so I'll always look for the good. I made 13 sales over the strike period and all my customers were very understanding and now I can get these orders out next week. Also during the strike period I continued to list new inventory as well. Stocking the shelves so to speak. It's good to always have a forward thinking vision and attitude. You would be surprised how life turns out.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone
needsmorerobots
·9 months agoI appreciate your glass half full thinking. I do the same.
While the chips were done, I've been going through and touching up my existing inventory while adding new items.
I made my first sale in a month since things went sideways.
Whenever I think about quitting, I get bull headed and plow through. Someday it may not be enough. For now, I'll take what I can get.
reallynicestamps
·9 months agoI don't know why we are focussed on lettermail.
Canada Post delivers more parcels than lettermail and claims to deliver more parcels than any other Canadian carrier.
Even a Boomer like me who prefers written communication, gets little more than bank statements and the occasional greeting card.
But parcels are as likely to be delivered to me by Canada Post as by UPS or DHL.
What pays for lettermail isn't the stamps - the rate is controlled by Parliament- but that junk mail from Canadian Tire and LazyBoy.
chicweb
·9 months agoLettermail is used for things like DVD/CD and small items using oversized lettermail.
Those markets are dead on eBay without lettermail. Customers, here, doesnt seem to want to pay 10$ shipping for a DVD and doesnt seem to want to combine.
Thats just the reality of some markets.
So, we need lettermail. Not the junk mail/ads. 😉 but Canada Post might be making too much money from those ads to let that go.
reallynicestamps
·9 months agoAnd I use lettermail for single stamps, usually depending on value, within Canada.
Technically, lettermail should not be used for international shipping, which requires a customs declaration of goods.
And "technically" here means the goods might be refused delivery or seized.
And yeah, CPO makes a lot of money from advertising mail. I could do without the real estate and LazyBoy flyers, but I miss the flyers my local supermarket no longer sends.
dinomitesales
OP9 months agoPersonally, I'm waiting until Tuesday before I switch everything back over to Canada Post.
See how this progresses over the weekend, and what kind of statement Canada Post makes.
widgetc
·9 months agoI too will wait.
silverpinups
·9 months agoWell that's an improvement I guess... Do I open my store or not? I can work with rotating strikes as the mail will be moving. CUPW knows it's members are not happy and Canada Post is not going to budge on negotiations. It's either a rotating strike or continue a full strike and starve.
thebossorder
·9 months agoi really cant with the union, they want more than they deserve. the job of postman is changing , most people check their mail once a week or less because its mostly empty or ads so why are they fighting to keep a 5 days delivery to all addresses when that service shouldnt even exist anymore.
i understand that a lot of big businesses are probably not looking for the best interest of their employees but at the same time if the business is losing money everyday you gotta make change. as a business owner id be cutting the extra as well and to me it feels like a lot of the employees are "extra"
flipistics
·9 months agoI wonder if Canada Post will lock them out now? It would make sense for them to want this resolved before the Christmas rush.
dinomitesales
OP9 months agoI doubt it. There really isn't anything to "resolve" - the union is never going to accept an offer presented by Canada Post, and Canada Post will never accept an offer presented by the union.
Canada Post knows that the government is on their side, they just need to wait it out until the government steps in and does something about it. My as well regain services while that's happening.
Ironically, a rotating strike will do nothing more than show the general public that daily mail delivery is not needed in 2025.
flipistics
·9 months agoRight, but you'd have to think that would be more likely to force the government to step in. It's possible Canada Post loses less money in a lockout than they lose in rotating strikes since most people still won't want to send mail out while that's happening.
needsmorerobots
·9 months agoI don't see why they would.
From what I'm observing, Canada Post has public opinion on their side. Locking out postal employees would change that.
Canada Post doesn't need a shovel. CUPW are doing just fine digging their own grave.
fergua3
·9 months agoi'm sure they'll be a lockout. CUPW is switching to rotating strikes probably because the members need to earn some money. Strike pay reserves may be getting low and there is no resolution in sight to the general strike.
CP will defintely lose more money in rotating strikes because they have to pay wages again but new business remains very low. It will also force the gov't to step in more quickly.
So expect lockout Oct 11/12.
Honestlly, if it were up to me, callus as it is, i say let them starve. Lock them out for several months and re-address this in the New Year. Maybe that will end this every 3 year nonsense once and for all.
Easy for me to say, though, now that i'm no longer selling and don't live in a rural community....so i doubt anything like that will happen. But something has got to be done to wake CUPW up. They are in an industry that has radically changed and they are still acting like it's the 1970's.
ypdc_dennis
·9 months agoThe cynic in me says CUPW decided to switch to rotating on Saturday so members could get holiday pay for Thanksgiving Monday.
CUPW is not acting like it was the 1970's -- they are acting like it was 20 years ago when lettermail was still strong. Back in the days when people would pay for ebay purchases with cheques and money orders send through the mail.
ypdc_dennis
·9 months agoNo lock out for now.
Canada Post has posted a response to the switch to rotating strikes on their website.
"Some limitations will apply after our operations resume – including for pickups and drop-offs. ... new commercial volumes will not be accepted into the network until Wednesday, October 15. This means we will not pick up or accept mail or parcels at our plants or depots until this date. "