Canada Post is telling online shoppers and Christmas card senders to expect very long delays for the foreseeable future.
The corporation says mail is moving, but by the end of the week, it may be unable to honour delivery standards for any packages because of rotating strikes. It says the delays will be especially pronounced for southern and southwestern Ontario.
"This is because the country's largest and busiest mail and parcels processing plants, in Toronto, have the highest volumes and have been left idle repeatedly for several days by the union's rotating strikes," read a statement from Canada Post.
The delays affect international mail and are likely to continue through to the end of January.
The warning comes just days before Black Friday sales and Cyber Monday when volumes hit yearly highs.
Related story: Windsor area CUPW urges MP’s to demand change at Canada Post
"The extra resources that normally allow Canada Post to deliver peak volumes are all constrained because of ongoing strikes and labour disruptions," continued the statement. "Employees represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers are no longer working overtime or weekends, and temporary employees are discouraged from working extra hours."
With the backlogs, customers are running out of trailers and containers because they are currently full of parcels and mail. Normally, those are emptied and made available for the next customer.
Canada Post had asked the union for a cooling-off period in the labour dispute until the end of January so it could clear backlogs and cope with incoming Christmas deliveries, but it rejected the proposal.
The corporation had offered to reinstate collective agreements, but CUPW has said workload, health and safety, and pay equity for rural and suburban mail carriers are significant issues in this round of bargaining.
