Winnipeg union calling for Canada Post shift, sorting changes to stop

The union representing Canada Post workers in Winnipeg is calling for a stop to changes to workers’ start times and the way sorting is done.

The Winnipeg chapter of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers says letter carriers who used to sort inside a facility will now have to do it outside. The function, according to the union, accounts for 25 per cent of workers’ days.

“Your routes go from having about 23,000 steps a day on average to up to 37,000,” said Sean Tugby, the president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers in Winnipeg.

According to Tugby, Canada Post is also pushing the start times of workers later. These changes, according to him, have already started at some Canada Post depots in the city, with even more slated to change later this year.

“With the later start times you’re working more in direct heat in the summertime and then running out of daylight in the wintertime, not being able to see hazards, and then in the summertime working in vehicles without air conditioning is very tenuous as well.”

The calls from the union come as Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers are in negotiations for a new collective agreement and the crown corporation faces a tough financial picture.

According to Canada Post’s 2023 Annual Report, the crown corporation has seen triple digit loses since 2018, with 2023 seeing a loss of $748 million. It comes as Canadians send less letter mail, with the crown corporation reporting a steep drop from a peek of 5.5 billion pieces of letters in 2006 to 2.2 billion in 2023.

Ian Lee, a business professor at Carleton University who has studied Canada Post for years says unless the crown corporation adapts to consumer changes, moving away from letter mail and instead, catering more to consumers who rely on e-commerce to make their purchases, the corporation will die.

“Their core business is vanishing,” said Lee.

“Parcels are the future. They are the partner of e-commerce; they will have to be delivered. Canada Post is the only organization in Canada that delivers to 17 million addresses.”

CityNews reached out to Canada Post for comment on this story but did not hear back at this time.