A scheduled meeting between Canada Post and its largest union has been pushed back as federal mediators are preoccupied with another possible labor strike in the country’s supply chain.
Canada Post was set to meet the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) Friday and Monday to restart talks regarding the national courier’s latest contract offers for its urban and rural/suburban segments.
But according to both parties, the mediators are unavailable due to their current involvement in stalled contract negotiations between Air Canada and its 10,500 flight attendants who are threatening to strike at 1 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturday morning.
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Canada Post told Canadian publication Global News that talks have been rescheduled for Aug. 20.
Contrary to the threats at Air Canada, the 55,000-member postal workers’ union has not taking strike action since the May negotiation deadline concluded. Instead, the CUPW is currently in the middle of a months-long national overtime ban. Under that stoppage, union workers do not work beyond the typical eight-hours-per-day schedule, and won’t work more than 40 hours in a week.
Ahead of the initially planned meeting Friday, the CUPW had been calling for a return to the bargaining table since union members took a government-ordered two-week vote. That vote resulted in nearly 70 percent of the members rejecting both offers.
The standoff has endured over pay wages and the expansion of parcel deliveries into the weekend. The union members want a 19 percent wage increase over the four-year period, while the courier was offering 13.6 percent. Both sides haven’t been able to agree on how to staff weekend work. The CUPW had also shown concerns about contracting out deliveries to third parties, and adding part-time workers.
The overtime ban, and more recently, numerous instances of wildfires across Canada, have hurt the Crown corporation’s performance as it is trying to stay above water.
“As you know, Canada Post is facing an existential crisis. Letter mail volumes continue to erode and competition in the parcel line of business places ever-increasing pressure on the Corporation’s operating model,” wrote Canada Post in a statement Wednesday. “While negotiations remain unresolved, there remains an urgent need to modernize Canada Post and protect this vital national service for Canadians and Canadian businesses.”
Canada Post cited the independent industrial inquiry commission into the labor dispute and ensuing report, which found that the parcel delivery company was “effectively insolvent.” Since 2018, Canada Post has incurred pre-tax losses of $2.8 billion. The Canadian federal government forked over a $720 million loan in January so that it could remain solvent throughout the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Negotiations between the two parties for a new collective agreement have been ongoing for more than a year and a half.
As for Air Canada, the airline says 500 flights will be cancelled by end of Friday, which would impact about 100,000 passengers who would have to find travel alternatives. In a press conference Thursday, Mark Nasr, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Air Canada, said the cancellations will affect 130,000 customers a day.
According to a report from The Toronto Star, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) rejected a proposal from the airline to send the deal to binding arbitration Friday.
The union is demanding higher wages and compensation for unpaid work.
The possible strike would halt cargo movement for goods carried on the airline’s jets. On Wednesday, Air Canada started a phased winddown of most of its operations, allowing no more bookings for the transportation of specialty cargo products like e-commerce goods and pharmaceuticals.
For general cargo and mail, the standard 14-day booking window continues to apply, with standard acceptance times.
