By Sheldon Alberts
Postmedia News Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON — The United States Postal Service on Friday stopped accepting all mail to Canada on the expectation that the labour dispute between Canada Post and its workers will last at least into next week.
In a statement, the USPS said it would “suspend accepting mail destined to Canada” starting Saturday at 11:59 central daylight time.
“As a convenience to our customers and to minimize service disruptions, we arranged to accept mail destined for Canada as long as possible,” Giselle Valero, a USPS vice president, said in the statement.
“We will continue to closely monitor the strike situation, and once Canada Post resumes operations, the U.S. Postal Service will again begin accepting mail for Canada. We also will then resume processing any Canadian-destined mail currently held in our network.”
Canada Post locked out 50,000 employees and suspended operations across the country on Tuesday following 12 days of rotating strikes.
The Conservative government has announced plans to introduce back-to-work legislation to end the labour dispute.
A meeting Friday between Deepak Chopra, the chief executive of Canada Post, and Denis Leveling, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, did not produce any progress on major issues, Canada Post said.
“The union continues to have too many demands that would drive up costs, limit operational flexibility and restrict Canada Post’s ability to address fundamental problems such as declining mail volumes, competitiveness and a $3.2-billion deficit in the pension plan,” Canada Post said in a statement.
“The company’s financial position has been further weakened by uncertainty and rotating strikes that began on June 3 and cost close to $100 million in lost revenues.”
Americans can continue to send letters and packages via the USPS’s Global Express Guaranteed courier service during the strike.
Postmedia News
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