Canada Post will resume contract negotiations with the mail carriers’ union on Wednesday for the first time in nearly three months following a recent vote to reject the company’s final offer.
The first meeting with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers since May 28 was scheduled for Friday, but moved to next week to accommodate the schedule of federal mediators who are currently preoccupied with the Air Canada labor dispute. The sides have been at loggerheads for more than 18 months over a new collective bargaining agreement, with mail carriers walking off the job for 32 days during the holiday season last year and refusing in late May to work overtime.
“The company looks forward to receiving a detailed and comprehensive response from CUPW that addresses the real, significant and increasing challenges faced by the postal service,” Canada Post said in a statement. “While negotiations remain unresolved, there remains an urgent need to modernize Canada Post and protect this vital national service for Canadians.”
Canada Post asked the government to conduct a member vote after CUPW leaders spurned the postal operator’s “best and final offer” on May 28. The government agreed, against union objections, and members overwhelmingly turned down the proposal on Aug. 1.
Canada Post’s final offer includes a wage hike of 13.6% over four years, a $500 to $1,000 signing bonus, and a higher cost of living allowance.
The state-owned company is pressing the union for changes to work rules it says are necessary to address severe erosion of letter mail volumes and competition from private carriers that are eating into the parcel business. Critics say Canada Post has been slow to modernize after email changed how people communicated and online shopping increased demand for fast parcel delivery
The postal service reported a $611 million pre-tax loss last year. Revenue declined 12.2%. Parcel revenue declined by 20.3% in 2024 as volumes fell by 56 million pieces, or 20%, compared to 2023. Customer defections increased after the month-long strike and many shippers have recently switched because of a cloud of uncertainty over future work stoppages. Since 2018, Canada Post has lost $2.7 billion
Changes being sought include pilot testing dynamic instead of static routes based on changing volumes, part-time workers to support weekend delivery and load leveling individual routes as needed to spread the workload and improve delivery times.
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