How Canada Post Strike will affect Small Business
Understanding the impact of CUPW’s national strike
On September 25, 2025, Canada Post’s operations were shut down when the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) initiated a national strike.
What to expect
Mail and parcels in the postal network will not be processed or delivered and will be securely held until operations resume. Service guarantees are suspended for items already in the postal network. No new domestic or international items will be accepted until the national strike is over except for parcel returns, which continue to be accepted at those post offices that remain open.
A national strike of any length will impact service for you and your customers well after strike activity ends. Items will be delivered as quickly as possible once operations resume. However, processing and delivery operations will take some time to fully return to normal and your business should expect delays.
What this means for your business
Operations
• We cannot recover items already in the network during a strike. This includes items located inside and outside of our facilities.
• Canada Post equipment such as containers, monotainers and pallets will not be accessible until after operations resume.
• Scheduled pickups have been cancelled and there will be no contracted pickups during the national strike.
• Post offices that remain open will not accept new mail or parcels until the national strike is over, except for parcel returns.
Parcels
• Our shipping tools remain available to prepare orders. However, customers will not be billed for labels printed until operations resume and they are scanned into our network.
• Because we use event-based billing, you do not have to cancel unused labels.
• Return labels remain available through our tools.
• The Parcel Redirection service also remains available. However, please note parcels will not be redirected until operations resume, at which point redirections will be done on a best-effort basis.
• We will not recycle or return any Neighbourhood Mail (flyers) already inducted into our network. Mailings will be delivered when operations resume.
• Our shipping tools, EST and Precision Targeter remain available for customers to continue to plan and prepare future mailings. When operations resume, transmitted SOMs will only be billed once the mailings are scanned as received.
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