With little movement at the bargaining table, Canada Post has turned up the pressure on its 48,000 unionized employees by cutting home delivery to three days a week.

Letters, flyers and small packages will continue to be delivered this week, but starting next week, service will be only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in most cities. Parcels and priority post service will continue at five days a week.

“Our volumes have dropped off a cliff since the union started their rotating strike activity,” said Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton. “We just need to act now to avoid significant losses. Our costs are the same while our revenues have taken a plunge.”

Post office operating hours and access to post office boxes will be unchanged. Pickup from street letter boxes will also continue.

Canadians who live in rural Canada will continue to receive daily service because their carriers are covered by a separate labour contract.

Hamilton warned that staffing levels at mail processing plants will also be adjusted due to the plummeting mail volumes, which he estimates is down by half from the usual 40 million items a day.

That means workers will be paid only for the hours they work. Because the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has opted to do rotating strikes, mostly for 24 hours, employees have still been collecting a paycheque even though the strike began last Friday.

Shortly after Canada Post made its announcement about limiting service, the union announced rotating strikes would hit 13 smaller cities from Labrador City to Yellowknife and Whitehorse. In Ontario, the 24-hour strike, beginning at 11:30 pm Wednesday, will target Brantford, St. Thomas, Hearst and Thunder Bay.

“It appears that the union’s strategy of minimizing disruption of service to the public, while applying pressure to (Canada Post) management to negotiate, is working,” a union bulletin said, referring to the delivery announcement. “The CUPW will continue its strategy of rotating strikes and will not respond to this provocation.”

Canada Post said falling volumes have forced it to cut expenses immediately to avoid significant losses, which could mean a burden for taxpayers or eventually higher service costs for customers.

The two sides are scheduled to meet in Ottawa on Thursday when the union will present its response to the company’s last offer. The union’s national executive board will also meet “to review developments and determine our further course of action.”