Unions block trucks at the Canada Post depot in British Columbia. to protest the back to work bill

OTTAWA – Canada Post employees are being forced to return to work after more than five weeks of rotating strikes, but that does not stop their brothers from picking up signs to support them – and slowing the mail down again.

Just after the federal government passed legislation this week forcing the members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers to end the strike, the union warned that other unions could act in response.

And today, they did it.

According to CUPW, several large unions in British Columbia have set up strike pickets at the Pacific Processing Center in Vancouver.

Protesters said they would allow workers to enter the facility, which is the country's third largest postal sorting plant, but trucks carrying mail would not be allowed to enter or exit.

CUPW National President Mike Palecek said that if his 50,000 members are banned from picketing, the other union members are not subject to any similar restrictions.

"What we're seeing in Vancouver today is that instead of settling our dispute with Canada Post, the Trudeau government fought against the unions," Palecek said in a statement. "" Damn one, it's hurting everyone, "it's more than a slogan."

The union declared the back-to-work bill, Bill C-89, unconstitutional.

The law came into effect Monday night, forcing postal workers to return to work yesterday as an arbitration process is launched to try to settle the contractual disputes between Canada Post and its main union.

The state company said it was doing everything possible to have the mail and parcels sorted in British Columbia. non-CUPW pickets disrupted delivery truck traffic.

"Canada Post is working hard to minimize downtime and resolve the situation."

The agency warned of significant delivery delays throughout the country until January due to rotating strikes by CUPW members that began on October 22.