Canada’s 55,000 postal workers will have to decide whether they will accept Canada Post’s “final” contract offers via a union vote, after an order from the country’s federal jobs minister.
Jobs and families minister Patty Hajdu exercised the authority after speaking to both Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). The CUPW is currently conducting a national overtime ban, meaning members have not worked beyond the typical eight-hours-per-day schedule, and won’t work more than 40 hours in a week.
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While the national courier initially requested for a vote to take place and welcomed Hajdu’s decision, union leadership is already calling on members to vote “no.”
“After 18 months of negotiation, over 200 meetings between the parties, 33 days of strike and lockout in the fall and ongoing strain placed on Canada’s small businesses and communities, it is in the public interest that the membership of CUPW has the opportunity to vote on Canada Post’s last offers,” Hajdu said in a statement posted on X.
The vote will be administered by the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) “as soon as possible,” Hajdu said.
“Canada Post welcomes the Minister’s decision as it will provide employees with the opportunity to have a voice and to vote on a new collective agreement at a critical point in the company’s history,” the Crown corporation said in a statement Thursday. “A negotiated agreement between the parties has always been the preferred path to an employee ratification vote.”
To kick off June, the union had previously requested Canada Post to take the talks to binding arbitration, but the carrier rejected the proposal on the grounds that it would likely last more than a year.
The CUPW called Hajdu’s decision “yet another assault on our collective bargaining rights,” also referencing the government’s back-to-work order that ended the union’s four-week strike in December.
Additionally, the union shared its discontent with labor minister Steven MacKinnon for launching the industrial inquiry commission that issued recommendations on the negotiations.
That report suggested both parties to allow Canada Post to close more rural post offices, expand community mailboxes, and give the postal service flexibility to hire part-time workers for weekend parcel delivery. The CUPW has been critical of the report, saying it skewed heavily in favor of Canada Post’s positions.
“These repeated government attacks have poisoned the bargaining process,” said CUPW national president Jan Simpson in a statement. “The government’s actions have not helped to bring this impasse closer to a resolution. They have only pushed us further down the road…We will not stand by as the government and Canada Post work together to try to undermine our hard-fought rights, gut our collective agreements and re-write them on their own terms. Postal workers know how to fight back. We’ve done it before, and we’re ready to do it again.”
The vote will determine whether the union accepts two separate contract offers—one for its urban postal workers and another for its rural and suburban segment.
The latest offers presented by Canada Post on May 28 include a wage hike of just over 13 percent over four years, as well as a signing bonus of $1,000, alongside plans to institute weekend mail service. But the union has sought a 19-percent pay hike for both units, and has been critical of the increased focus on part-time employees within the urban carrier segment.
Last week, the union filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the CIRB, accusing Canada Post of skirting the union to negotiate directly with workers and “purposefully trying to discredit the reputation of the union.” The complaint is seeking unspecified damages paid to the union.
Ballot box aside, Canada Post has struggled mightily financially in recent years, which has led to some of the changes that the CUPW has railed against.
The delivery company has lost $2.2 billion since 2018, and securing a $720 million loan from the federal government in January just so it could stay solvent during the 2025-26 fiscal year.
As Canada’s postal workers await an official voting date, 2,100 more workers at DHL Express Canada remain locked out and have been picketing the company’s locations amid their own contract negotiations. Since the lockout began Sunday, DHL has used replacement workers and can legally do so until June 20.
According to Unifor, the private sector union that represents the locked-out DHL workers, the logistics giant presented the labor group with a revised offer on Wednesday.
