Labour Issues: 1) What the Canada Post strike means for your passports, pension cheques and more; 2)Canada Post workers walking off the job after government demands reforms 3)Air Canada estimates cost of flight attendant strike at $375-million as it lowers outlook

1) What the Canada Post strike means for your passports, pension cheques and more

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Canadian Press Staff, September 26, 2025

With Canada Post workers hitting picket lines, the flow of mail across the country has stopped.

Here’s what the move means for items you may have been expecting in your mailbox.

Mail delivery

Canada Post says mail and parcels will not be processed or delivered during the strike and some post offices will be closed. It has also suspended service guarantees for items already in the postal network and will not accept new items until the labour disruption is over.

Passports

The federal government is encouraging people applying for passports to use couriers other than Canada Post, if they are applying for their travel document by mail. They say applicants can also visit a Service Canada Centre or passport office to begin the process.

For people who have already applied for passports, the website says the government will make deliveries through another courier. It warns some delays may occur.

Benefits

Canada Post says the striking Canadian Union of Postal Workers has agreed to continue the delivery of socio-economic cheques during the labour disruption.

The postal service says this will ensure government financial assistance typically delivered by mail will reach seniors and other Canadians.

Bank statements, bills and debit and credit cards

Many of Canada’s major banks have messages on their websites reminding anyone who receives statements and bills through the mail that they can access those documents or make payments on the bank’s website.

Several have encouraged anyone needing a new debit or credit card to visit a branch.

Live animals

Canada Post says it has a process is in place to ensure live animal shipments already placed continue during the labour disruption, but no further ones will be accepted.

2)Canada Post workers walking off the job after government demands reforms

Courtesy: CBC News

Darren Major, Senior writer, CBC’s parliamentary bureau in Ottawa, September 25, 2025

Government authorizes corporation to end home delivery, close some post offices… and

Canada Post workers resume striking

The union representing Canada’s postal workers has called for a cross-country strike in the wake of the federal government announcing major reforms to Canada Post.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) said it was “outraged and appalled” by the changes laid out Thursday.

“In response to the government’s attack on our postal service and workers, effective immediately, all CUPW members at Canada Post are on a nationwide strike,” CUPW said in a statement.

Joël Lightbound, the minister responsible for Canada Post, detailed a number of changes, including authorizing Canada Post to end home delivery. About four million addresses still receive that service.

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Lightbound said Canada Post will also adjust how it delivers mail, so that non-urgent post can move by ground instead of air at a cost savings of $20 million annually.

The modernization plan also includes lifting the 1994 moratorium on closing rural post offices that covers nearly 4,000 locations — many of which the government says were once rural and have since become urban post offices.

‘The goal, ultimately, is to save Canada Post,’ minister says of postal service transformation

Joël Lightbound, minister of public works, was asked Thursday what makes the government think people will accept major changes to how Canada Post operates, particularly around door-to-door delivery.

The government is arguing that the changes are necessary to keep the Crown corporation — which is on track to lose $1.5 billion in 2025 — afloat.

“The bottom line is this: Canada Post is effectively insolvent,” Lightbound said earlier Thursday.

“It provides an essential service to Canadians, and in particular to rural, remote and Indigenous communities, and Canadians are rightfully attached to it and want it saved. However, repeated bailouts from the federal government are not the solution.”

The Crown corporation has 45 days to submit a cost-savings plan to the government.

CUPW pushed back against the proposed changes and disputed that they’re needed to get Canada Post out of the red.

“The changes announced by the government, including converting four million addresses to community mailboxes, a reduction in mail delivery service standards and the abandoning of the rural moratorium, are drastic and will negatively impact the public and postal workers,” the union’s statement said.

CUPW argues that part of the corporation’s financial crunch is due to “uncertainty” around the ongoing labour dispute. Negotiations for a new collective agreement have been ongoing for more than a year and a half.

Minister regrets government stopped Canada Post mailbox conversion in 2015

The federal government laid out its plan to save Canada Post. Part of that plan includes allowing them to end home delivery — something the Liberals ran against in the 2015 election. The minister responsible for Canada Post, Joël Lightbound, now says that was ‘probably’ a mistake.

A strike and lockout lasted more than a month during the busy holiday period last year, ending only after the labour minister asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order employees back to work.

Jim Gallant, a CUPW negotiator, told CBC’s Power & Politics that a new collective agreement would help stabilize Canada Post.

He suggested that a recent increase to stamp prices had already begun to bring in more revenue for Canada Post.

“We need something that’s sustainable, not a sunset industry, and it’s there and there’s money to be made,” he told host David Cochrane.

The union representing Canada Post workers says its members will be on nationwide strike in the next 24 hours, describing the situation as ‘fluid.’

Earlier this month, the union said the government’s offer of a 13 per cent pay increase fell short of its demand for 19 per cent.

While the union said it was willing to work with Canada Post to allow weekend delivery and the addition of part-time workers, it said the corporation walked away from the negotiating table.

Before the strike was announced, mail carriers told CBC News the government’s decision ignores the important work they do for their communities, and that they worry for residents along their routes.

“It’s a little sad that an institution that is kind of in everyone’s community will eventually wither away,” said Daniel Bryant, who has been a mail carrier in Toronto for 20 years.

Bryant says he gets to know the people along his route and performs wellness checks on residents in need. He’ll knock on their doors to chat, see how they’re doing and put them in contact with others if needed.

Helen Karrandjas, another Toronto postal worker, says the news makes her feel like Canada Post workers are seen only as delivery personnel.

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A 2023 National Institute of Ageing white paper titled “Special Delivery” found that programs checking in on seniors have been successful in Japan, France and the Isle of Jersey, U.K., and suggested a similar program could be an additional revenue source for Canada Post.

Karrandjas said it feels like a “waste” not to use Canada Post’s nationwide community network to expand its services, rather than reduce them, at a time when the country’s population is aging.

“I’m a little bit baffled from that perspective,” she said.

3)Air Canada estimates cost of flight attendant strike at $375-million as it lowers outlook

Courtesty of The Canadian Press, and The Globe & Mail

DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press, September 24, 2025

Air Canada aircraft at the Vancouver International Airport in August. The airline has lowered its guidance for the year after taking a hit from this summer’s flight attendant strike.

The Montreal-based airline said in a press release that it estimates the cost of the labour disruption was $375-million on operating income and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Air Canada said that it now expects to make between $2.9-billion and $3.1-billion in adjusted EBITDA for the full year. This is in comparison the airline’s previous 2025 guidance that it suspended in August, which had projected adjusted EBITDA between $3.2-billion and $3.6-billion.

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For the third quarter, Air Canada said it expects operated capacity to decline by around two per cent from the same period last year, due to the cancellation of more than 3,200 flights. It also expects operating income between $250-million and $300-million during the quarter.

The airline said three factors combined for the $375-million financial impact of the strike. The first is an estimated $430-million revenue hit from refunds, customer compensation and lower travel bookings. It also had about $90-million in incremental costs associated with reimbursements for customers and some labour operating costs.

However, the company also saved $145-million, primarily due to lower fuel costs, which reduced the loss.

The Air Canada flight attendant strike lasted three days and ended on Aug. 19, though it took longer to ramp up to full operations.

Earlier this month, Air Canada flight attendants massively rejected the employer’s wage offer, with the airline saying the wage portion will now be referred to mediation as previously agreed to by both sides.

The tentative deal that was voted down raised wages for workers and established a pay structure for time worked when aircraft are on the ground.