Ottawa residents welcome partial return of mail delivery

Mail delivery is expected to resume next week as unionized work shift from a general strike to rotating strikes.

Mail is expected to begin moving across the country once again on a limited basis as the postal workers union shifts strategies, which comes as a relief to some in Ottawa who rely on Canada Post’s services.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) says it is shifting from a full nation-wide strike to a series of rotating strikes. While this move will see mail and parcels on the move again, deliveries will roll out at a slower pace than normal.

For 80-year-old Janice Kidder, the news comes as a relief.

To say Kidder relies on Canada Post is an understatement.

The 80-year-old depends on the postal service to deliver essential medial replacement parts for a colostomy bag she wears 24/7.

“I was so angry (when the strike started again). Part of the frustration was anger,” says Kidder.

“Anger that somebody like postal workers could not stop to think that they very obviously knew they were hurting small business, but there were other people, like myself, with health issues that depend on these companies to get us our supplies.”

Postal workers hit the picket lines for the second time this year Sept. 25.

The strike-action began hours after the federal government allowed Canada Post to make changes to the business before a deal was reached with the union. These changes would have included the end of door-to-door mail delivery for nearly all Canadian households within the next decade and the shutting down of some post offices.

However, the look of the strike is changing this weekend over two weeks after it began.

On Saturday CUPW, who represents 55,000 Canada Post employees, plans to start rotating strikes. That could mean a postal station or processing plant in Ottawa could go on strike one day, and then in Vancouver the next.

“A rotating strike is what we have used over the last number of work stoppages over the last decade,” CUPW negotiator Jim Gallant said.

“This is something we’re used to, it puts external pressure on the employer but leaves our people in the workplace, serving Canadians, (and) being paid at the same time.”

“There’s mixed feeling regarding the decision to return back to work and having a rotating strike across the country,” CUPW Toronto President Mark Lubinski said at a rally in Toronto.

“We’re like any other family. People have different opinions, but we follow our national executive board’s decisions. The decision was to return back to work. So those postal services can continue on, letters can be delivered, and parcels can be delivered.”

Lubinski says smalls businesses and the public need post offices and postal services.

“But we will also continue on our fight to keep door-to-door delivery for the residents, Canadians that have it, use it, and want it,” he said.

While mail services are set to resume next week, Canada Post released a statement on Friday saying, “We welcome our employees back to work, but uncertainty and instability in the postal service will continue with the union’s decision to conduct rotating strikes.”

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