Hmm...our local post office (BPost) was on strike some weeks ago as well. I'm not sure how it got resolved, but I suppose with raises and/or better working conditions. With good reason: people hardly send letters anymore (that's all e-mail now), but have things shipped more than ever. Whenever the garbage men come to pick up carbon & paper, you can just count whomever ordered from bol.com, amazon or similar web-based deliveries. It's only fair that if deliveries get larger and heavier, the postmen need to be compensated better. If that doesn't happen (enough), it's only logical to go on strike. You would to that too if you're getting payed to carry a bag of letters while you're in reality carrying more packages than Santa Claus.
@Noctosphere : I haven't followed the situation in Canada, so...what does that proposal mean, exactly? I won't deny that some packages are very important (organ transplants or medical supplies, for example), but AFAIK the majority are just luxury products. For the most part, these packages aren't filling a real need to someone, so it would seem to me that it's pretty hard to argue that it's a crime ("this lady had to wait FIVE EXTRA DAYS for her new hair dryer. Five days! Can you imagine how terrible it must be for her to wait for it and use her old one? She even contemplated GOING OUTSIDE THE DOOR to buy a hair dryer IN AN ACTUAL STORE!!!!").
Look...If you order 5+ items, your neighbor orders 5+ items and everyone in the street orders 5+ items (which is pretty likely, considering black friday is apparently a worldwide phenomenon now), then one postman that somehow has to deliver all that isn't going to cut it. Give him or her some slack, will you? Or apply for the job yourself if you think their working conditions aren't that bad.
As for "their backlog is entirely their fault"...that's an easy truism. People tend to go on strike when their workload is too large, not "just because". As such, a backlog is a logical consequence of the strike (fuck...I'd even consider a strike that doesn't generate a backlog one where with false intentions).