Apprehension and excitement for local Canada Post workers preparing to vote

“As a local, we decided not to put forward a recommendation to our membership because there’s so much uncertainty. Nobody feels comfortable recommending what anybody should vote. It’s going to be personal choices, and it’ll be close, I bet,” she said.

If the deal does not get ratified, another strike or labour disruptions could be possible. It’s a situation the Prince George business community has its eyes on.

“When there’s these labor disruptions, then people look at different ways (to get service), so another disruption and a potential labor disruption with Canada Post would just kind of continue to exacerbate that,” said the Prince George Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Director Neil Godbout.

“When there is a disruption in Canada Post service, I look for other ways that we can contact our members, invoice them, receive, and all of our invoices are now done electronically. Less than 10% of our members pay us through a cheque in the mail,” he continued.

Godbout says it’s “nothing personal,” but notes the local business community has largely moved away from Canada Post. Godbout says a pattern of labour disruptions has played a role in that, on top of an increasingly digital world and competition stepping up, especially during times of labour disruption.

“There’s now plenty of other private shippers of products besides Amazon, like Fedex, DHL, there’s other competitors in the market,” Godbout said.

As for whether or not this deal will go through, Chouinard can’t speak for how the votes will go because her Local 812 is leaving it up to the individual with no recommendation, but she did raise some concerns surrounding job security. Canada Post announced a five-year plan to fully transition into community mail boxes, which she says could potentially lead to 25% of the Canada Post workforce being lost.

“The CMB (Community Mail Box) conversion will further be detrimental to businesses. There’s not a really positive outlook for Canada Post, because as a corporation, they’ve decided not to diversify. They’ve decided to minimize service, and that’s unfortunate because we like serving Canadians,” Chouinard said.

Canada Post reported a record $1.57 billion loss in 2025.

by Tommy Osborne

Apprehension and excitement for local Canada Post workers preparing to vote

What's Trending