WORKERS at Canada’s national postal service went on strike today after union and management negotiators failed to reach agreement on demands for fair wages, safer working conditions and other improvements.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) said that about 55,000 Canada Post employees had withdrawn their labour, halting mail deliveries in the run-up to Christmas.

The union issued a 72-hour strike notice earlier in the week.

“We still believe we can achieve negotiated collective agreements, but Canada Post must be willing to resolve our new and outstanding issues,” CUPW said in a statement.

Canada Post served the union with a lockout notice soon afterwards, despite claiming that it didn’t intend to carry out the threat.

The government corporation released a statement early today confirming that mail would not be delivered for the duration of the strike and some post offices would be closed.

Ahead of the strike deadline, federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said he had appointed the director-general of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services to mediate in the dispute.