Striking Canada Post workers fighting against the inevitable

Canada Post workers picket outside a distribution centre as part of a strike action in Montreal on Sept. 26. Photo by Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press

I recently wrote that working notice is the secret weapon for employers who want to escape the stranglehold of costly severance packages. Today, we see a parallel lesson unfolding on a national stage: Ottawa has finally stopped writing blank cheques for Canada Post .

And the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), furious at being dragged into the 21st century, has responded with its second nationwide strike of 55,000 of its members in less than a year.

This is no ordinary strike . It is an existential drama.

Forty years ago, such a walkout would have brought the country to its knees. Cheques, bills, invoices — commerce itse