For an Ontario bride-to-be, the Canada Post strike means no wedding flowers on her big day.
Katherine Edwards, a resident of Midland, Ont., is set to get married on Dec. 7, but may have to do so without the main decor she’d planned for her wedding. That’s because the artificial flowers she ordered are stuck in the mail due to the national postal strike.
Some 55,000 postal workers, represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), have been on strike since Nov. 15. The union has said it is asking for fair wages, improved working conditions, the right to retire with dignity, and expansion of services at the post office.
In an interview on Friday, Edwards said she ordered the flowers from a Virginia-based seller on the e-commerce platform Etsy months ago.
“They were the ones my mom had picked out before she passed away so they were very important to me. That’s why I had ordered them so soon,” Edwards said.
“It was my way of having her there with me.”
The flowers were due to arrive on Nov. 13 before the strike started, Edwards said. They appear to have been sent to a Canada Post processing facility in Barrie but have not moved since, she added.
Edwards said she works in Barrie and her workplace is a five-minute drive from the facility, but she has been told she cannot pick them up. If the flowers are delivered after the strike ends, they will be of no use, she said.
Edwards said she ordered these flowers from a Virginia-based seller on the e-commerce platform Etsy months ago. Her mom helped choose the flowers before she died, she said. (Etsy/LushDesignFlowers)
Edwards told CBC News she contacted Canada Post on Instagram chat, but was told it couldn’t do anything for her and it ended the chat. She said she went to a Canada Post outlet in a Shoppers Drug Mart, but was again told that nothing could be done.
Edwards said she has called Canada Post customer relations repeatedly to try to get her flowers but to no avail. She said she’s been told that parcels need to be sorted before they are delivered. Now, whoever answers just hangs up on her, she said.
She was also told there are no pickup locations available, she said.
‘We did what we had to do’: workers’ union
Mark Lubinski, president of CUPW’s Toronto local, said the union had no choice but to strike.
Lubinski said while people are waiting for important parcels that contain such things as passports or wedding flowers, union members are fighting for job security and fair wages. He said members need a living wage and are living paycheque to paycheque.
“We are very empathetic to our customers that have mail stuck in the postal system, but it’s something that Canada Post is responsible for,” he said.
Canada Post workers hold a rally at a Scarborough mail facility on Nov. 25, 2024. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Lubinski said Canada Post is not negotiating at the bargaining table.
“We belong to a union and we had the right to strike and we went on strike. We were given no choice,” he said. “We did what we had to do.”
He added that picking up a parcel at a processing facility would involve crossing the picket line and it’s something that is not allowed. Canada Post itself has shut down operations, he said.
“It’s just not possible to go to your postal station, your postal plant, to pick up the mail. There’s no one inside there.”
Canada Post says it ‘sympathizes’ with situation
Valérie Chartrand, spokesperson for Canada Post, said in an email on Friday that the corporation understands Edwards’s plight.
“This is a difficult situation and we sympathize, but unfortunately CUPW’s decision to launch a national strike means we’re not able to process or deliver items,” Chartrand said.
Any mail and parcels have been “secured” and will be delivered on a “first-in, first-out” basis when operations resume, she added.
“However, the national strike will continue to impact service to Canadians well after the strike activity ends.”
Chartrand said the corporation is “considering its options to move negotiations forward with greater urgency and remains committed to negotiating new collective agreements.”
Meanwhile, Edwards says while the lack of flowers won’t ruin her wedding, they were going to be a big part of it.
“I’m not going to have my bouquet. My soon-to-be husband is not going to have his boutonniere,” she said.
“I get that they are a corporation and I’m just one person, but you’d think they would have a little heart and try to at least help.”