Canada Post late Friday asked the federal government to conduct a vote of unionized mail carriers on its latest contract proposal after leadership of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) publicly trashed management’s offer.
The postal operator urged the minister of jobs and families to direct the Canada Industrial Relations Board to hold a vote on the final offer submitted to the union on Wednesday. The request to bypass the union’s negotiating team suggests Canada Post believes there is more support for the offer among rank-and-file members than the union has indicated.
Canada Post acknowledged that the sides ideally would craft a collective bargaining agreement on their own without third-party arbitration, but “given the level of the impasse and CUPW’s negotiating position, it is not possible to reach tentative agreements in the normal course,” it said in a statement explaining the need for third-party administration of a vote. “We believe the best hope of achieving freely negotiated collective agreements is an employee vote administered by the CIRB under [Canadian labor law]. In these circumstances, employees in each bargaining unit would have the opportunity to voice their decision by voting on Canada Post’s final offers.”
The parties have been negotiating since November 2023 but are far apart on a deal despite months of conciliation and mediation by the government. Canada Post is seeking structural reforms and operational flexibility to address steep drops in letter mail and parcel shipping. The CUPW is calling for a substantial bump in pay while opposing changes to the way mail carriers are assigned to routes and to the use of part-time workers.
Mail carriers represented by the union were on strike for nearly five weeks late last year, during which time mail and parcels were not processed or delivered, and post offices were closed. The minister of labor intervened and ordered union members back to work on Dec. 17, with terms of the existing collective bargaining agreement extended until May 22, while a commission assessed the labor dispute and challenges facing Canada Post.
The CUPW backed off a threat to initiate a strike last Friday, opting instead for a national ban on overtime work while it considered another Canada Post offer.
The latest proposal adopts recommendations, such as part-time weekend shifts and leveling loads between routes, from the Industrial Inquiry Commission. The postal operator accused the CUPW of intransigence, saying its position “remains entirely at odds with the findings and recommendations of the IIC. Furthermore, CUPW has recently retracted its tentative agreement on key issues reached earlier this year.”
Canada Post said Wednesday that the 32-day strike last year was responsible for a quarter of its $611 million pretax loss and that the specter of another strike has caused parcel volumes in late May to fall by two-thirds year over year.
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.
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