Canada Post workers ordered back to work Tuesday, but weeks-long backlog expected

LANGLEY, B.C. -

The Christmas miracle many have been hoping for is finally coming to fruition.

Mail will begin moving again Tuesday when striking Canada Post employees return to work for the first time in a month. However, it’s still expected many deliveries will not make it in time for the holidays.

The feeling of frustration was evident on the picket line on Production Way in Langley.

Workers held signs that bared slogans such as “The government is a puppet for the corporation” and “Right to strike? Not in Canada.”

Postal workers have been out in the elements for a month now, only to have the government force them back to work.

“People are angry. We're being treated like children, and that's not okay,” said Holly Isaac, first vice president of the Fraser Valley West Local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.

On Friday, the Federal Labour Minister directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order 55,000 picketing postal workers back to work if a deal wasn't doable before year's end.

“If he was going to do it anyways, he should have done it sooner. Like I don't understand why he would make everybody else wait that long. It's not going to save Christmas. We're not going to catch up on time, so was it just for politics?” said Isaac.

After two days of hearings over the weekend, Canada Post said the board determined negotiations were at an impasse.

“We would have liked that they intervened much earlier. The impact on small businesses is significant, over $1.6 billion in lost sales, higher costs, and just a lot of cash flow issues to manage throughout all of this,” said Christina Santini of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Santini says she has heard of cases where businesses have lost 90 per cent of their sales due to it being the busy holiday season.

“So they've lost out on this year, and don't know if they'll have enough funds to continue throughout the next year in terms of their market sales, being able to keep their business afloat for the year to come,” she explained.

The backlog is likely to take weeks to clear.

“It's not like plugging a refrigerator back in, we have 21 plants, about 500 depots across the country, thousands of employees, so it's going to take some time, we're going to work through any backlog that was frozen in the system,” said Jon Hamilton, a spokesperson for Canada Post.

The crown corporation says it's agreed with the union to a five per cent wage hike, retroactive to the end of their last deal.

The existing contract is being extended until May to give both sides more time to talk.

Operations are now set to resume at 8 a.m. local time Tuesday.