Canada Post shut down operations in the Elk Valley and across the country Tuesday evening, locking out some 50,000 workers.
The corporation said it had accrued roughly $100-million in losses since job action started and that the shutdown will affect urban centres. It did not say whether rural mail delivery would continue.
But staff at Fernie's post office said they had turned up to work on Wednesday, to find they had been locked out, and that no mail was being moved.
Although the labour dispute does not include rural postal workers, who fall under a different contract, even the post office has acknowledged that a prolonged lockout could mean they would eventually have no more mail to deliver.