Canada’s postal workers have rejected the latest contract offers presented to them by their employer, Canada Post, extending an impasse between the parties on their ongoing labor negotiations.
After a two-week government-ordered voting period, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) shot down the dual proposals, which would have increased wages by 13.6 percent over four years and brought on more part-time workers.
Some 68.5 percent of urban mail carriers who voted were against the deal, while their rural and suburban colleagues were 69.4 percent against.
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The union members have sought a 19 percent wage increase over the four-year period. And with Canada Post expanding parcel deliveries to Saturday and Sunday, neither side has been able to agree on how to staff weekend work.
“It’s time for Canada Post to come back to the bargaining table and start seriously negotiating,” said Jan Simpson, national president of the CUPW. “With these votes behind us, Canada Post must now recognize that the only way forward is to negotiate ratifiable collective agreements that meet postal workers’ needs. The time for games is over.”
The 55,000 members of the CUPW have stopped working overtime for Canada Post since late May as part of their displeasure with the contract negotiations, which had lasted 18 months before the vote was ordered. That overtime ban remains in effect.
The 100,000-member Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses, called the vote “extremely disappointing.”
“This just brings more uncertainty at a time when small businesses are already struggling to plan ahead. We can’t keep doing this,” said Dan Kelly, president of the CFIB, in a statement. “If there’s another strike, two in three businesses may walk away from Canada Post permanently.”
With more than 30 percent of voting union members supporting Canada Post’s contract offer, the likelihood of a second strike appears less likely, unlike when the workers first walked off the job during last year’s holiday season.
“Our negotiators are ready to get back to work right away. We’re committed to staying at the table until we’ve reached a deal,” said Simpson. “We expect the same from Canada Post.”
In the wake of the vote, Canada Post says it is evaluating its next steps.
“This result does not lessen the urgent need to modernize and protect this vital national service,” said Canada Post in a Friday statement. “However, it does mean the uncertainty that has been significantly impacting our business—and the many Canadians and Canadian businesses who depend on Canada Post—will continue.”
Canada Post has its hands full with the talks as questions remain regarding its own future. The national courier has been bleeding money for years, having lost $2.2 billion since 2018, and needed a $720 million loan from the Canadian federal government in January so that it could remain solvent throughout the 2025-26 fiscal year. Without that line of credit, Canada Post would have been unable to meet payroll.
A report from Industrial Inquiry Commission Commissioner William Kaplan earlier this year found the postal service was “facing an existential crisis,” and that it was effectively bankrupt.
“Until recently, Canada Post was able to operate in a financially sustainable manner through cross-subsidization: Low-cost urban and suburban mail delivery subsidized high-cost delivery to rural, remote, and Indigenous communities,” Kaplan wrote. “This model no longer works because the traditional core business—mail delivery—has fundamentally changed: fewer letters must now be delivered to more addresses.”
The report, which had been criticized by the union, suggests the Crown corporation expand community mailboxes and close more rural post offices to tighten budgets.
Canadian Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu, who sent the two Canada Post offers to a vote, had asked the parties to come to terms for binding arbitration to end the dispute. This had been favored by the union, but Canada Post had declined due to the lengthiness that a third-party negotiation process would likely require, particularly as the courier fights through its financial struggles.
Binding arbitration was used to end multiple Canadian work stoppages last year at the country’s major seaports and Class I railroads.
Hajdu said it is now up to both parties to return to the table and has indicated that the Canadian government expects the parties to reach a resolution “as soon as possible.”
The CFIB’s Kelly called on government intervention to prevent another strike from happening, by extending the current collective bargaining agreement for the foreseeable future.
