First off is the Union statement
CUPW Issues 72-Hour Strike Notice: A Call for Fair Negotiation
Tuesday May 20 2025
2023-2027/251
No. 83 - AMENDED
On Monday, May 19, CUPW issued a 72-hour strike notice to Canada Post. This action was not taken lightly, but it was done for several reasons.
The collective agreements for the Urban Postal Operations and the Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers bargaining units, which were extended by the Government in December 2024, are set to expire Friday, May 23 at midnight.
CUPW negotiators met with Canada Post over several days at the end of April and early May, with the goal of resolving our bargaining dispute and achieving new collective agreements for both bargaining units.
Last week, Canada Post walked away from the bargaining table for the third time, telling the Union it would return with new comprehensive offers. A week has passed. With the expiry of our collective agreements drawing closer by the day, we are still waiting. The clock is ticking, and so far, Canada Post has yet to deliver.
The day after Canada Post walked away and paused bargaining, it fired another shot, by threatening to unilaterally change your working conditions and suspend employee benefits if new agreements aren’t reached. This aggressive move undermines good faith bargaining and the stability of our public postal service. It had to be met with strong resistance. Postal workers won’t be threatened or coerced into accepting offers that will gut our collective agreements and undermine good, stable jobs.
Our right to strike was taken away from us and put on “a time out” by former Minister of Labour Steven MacKinnon’s orders and the Canada Industrial Relations Board in December 2024. By issuing this notice, we are simply announcing our intention to continue our legal strike that was put on pause by the CIRB.
The Work Continues
Although we have served notices, there is still time for negotiations to take place. We remain committed to achieving negotiated collective agreements. Your National Executive Board and Negotiating Committees urge Canada Post to return to the bargaining table with real offers that protect the health and well-being of postal workers, support the communities we serve, and ensure a strong and sustainable public postal service for all.
In solidarity,
Jan Simpson
National President
Negotiations Update: Canada Post Not Interested in Settling on Terms of Reference for Arbitration
Tuesday June 10 2025
2023-2027/271
No. 98
Yesterday, June 9, our negotiating committees spoke with federal mediators to hear Canada Post’s response to our proposed Terms of Reference for a binding interest arbitration process. Instead of working toward a balanced framework, Canada Post made it clear it is not serious about meaningful arbitration as was requested by the Minister for Jobs and Families, Patty Hajdu. The Employer told us it sees no hope of agreeing on Terms of Reference, refusing to engage in any real discussion.
Canada Post’s insistence on using the Industrial Inquiry Commission’s (IIC) recommendations as a foundation for arbitration is a deliberate attempt to tilt the process in its favour before it even begins. That is not neutrality. That is not bargaining. That is not how arbitration works.
Canada Post is not trying to resolve this impasse; it is trying to bypass it. Canada Post doesn’t want negotiated agreements. What it wants is to impose its own terms, through government processes, effectively gutting and rewriting our collective agreements by themselves.
We are ready to enter binding interest arbitration under agreed-upon terms. We will not accept a process dictated by CPC, especially one based on recommendations that ignore the lived realities of postal workers and the future we are fighting for.
Postal workers deserve a process that respects our union and leads to real solutions. We need to keep our workfloors mobilized and ready to fight back.
Our national overtime ban remains in effect.
In solidarity,
Jan Simpson
National President
CUPW-represented employees to have the opportunity to vote on Canada Post’s final offers after 18 months of negotiations
Canada Post has received notice that the Minister of Jobs and Families has approved its request for a vote to take place on the company’s final offers to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), using her authority under section 108.1 of the Canada Labour Code.
The vote will be administered by the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) as soon as possible and will give employees in the Urban and RSMC (Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers) bargaining units the opportunity to have their say on Canada Post’s final offers. The company stands ready to work with the CIRB to prepare for the vote and will share details as soon as they are available.
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 its history. A negotiated agreement between the parties has always been the preferred path to an employee ratification vote. However, the parties remain at a major impasse after 18 months of negotiations, a national strike and an Industrial Inquiry Commission that detailed the challenges facing the company, and what needs to be done to begin addressing them.
Canada Post’s final offers
On May 28, 2025, Canada Post presented final offers to CUPW for employees in the Urban and RSMC bargaining units. The vote will take place on these offers.
Details about the company’s final offers are available at canadapost.ca/offers.
Minister of Jobs and Families Chooses to Force a Vote on CPC’s Final Offers
Thursday June 12 2025
2023-2027/273
No. 99
Leadership and Negotiation Committees Recommend to Vote No
Today, June 12, the Minister of Jobs and Families, Patty Hajdu, has chosen to accept Canada Post’s request to force a vote on the Employer’s May 28 offers for both CUPW bargaining units.
The Minister’s decision is yet another assault on our collective bargaining rights, just the latest we have faced in a matter of just months. In December, former Minister of Labour, Steven MacKinnon used section 107 to put our legal strike on “pause,” and section 108 to strike an Industrial Inquiry Commission (IIC).
These repeated government attacks have poisoned the bargaining process.
The Government's actions have not helped to bring this impasse closer to a resolution. They have only pushed us further down the road.
In all instances, the Government has assisted with the Employer: “pausing” our legal strike action, establishing an IIC with terms favouring the Employer’s positions, and now forcing a vote against the Union’s clear opposition.
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.
CUPW will call all on all postal workers to stand together and VOTE NO to the Employer’s offers.
Our national overtime ban remains in effect.
In solidarity,
Jan Simpson
National President
10 Reasons to Vote NO on Canada Post’s Final Offers!
Friday June 13 2025
2023-2027/274
No. 100
On May 28, Canada Post tabled what it called its “best and final” offers for the Urban Postal Operations (UPO) and the Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers (RSMC). Just two days later, the Corporation asked the Minister of Jobs and Families Patty Hajdu to order a vote on both contracts. Then on June 12, the Minister announced that she was going to exercise her authority to force a vote on the Employer’s May 28 offers. Once again, the Government has chosen to take Canada Post’s side.
Postal workers need to stand ready to defend their rights and turn these offers down. When the time comes, members need to just VOTE NO!
Here are 10 reasons why:
- CPC’s 6% wage offer is not enough. Our COLA paid out almost 5% at the end of the last collective agreements. This means CPC’s offer of 6% for Year 1 is actually an offer of about 1%. For many of us, that a raise of just $0.34/hour.
- CPC’s offer does nothing to provide more full-time job opportunities for Group 1 employees.
- CPC’s Offer does not address the need for corporate vehicles for RSMCs. This is especially a problem for RSMCs in suburban areas whose mileage payments are not sufficient to compensate for their vehicle expenses.
- CPC wants new hires to have to work 6 months as a regular employee without pensionable service.
- CPC’s Short-Term Disability Plan proposal falls short. We need Canada Life to step out of the process, so our members can focus on their health and healing, not another form or medical certificate.
- “Load levelling” would erode seniority rights and give far too much power to supervisors to reassign work, opening us up to the risks of favouritism, bullying and harassment. Load levelling is also about eliminating overtime.
- CPC’s proposed “Dynamic Routing” model is another attack on our seniority rights. It would mean the end of route ownership and introduce heavier workloads – every day.
- Part-time positions would explode. Canada Post wants to create two new types of part-time worker in Group 2 for both weekend and weekday work.
- CPC’s “solutions” to Separate Sort from Delivery (SSD) don’t go far enough Canada Post needs to prioritize the work-life balance of its employees, not just the operational needs of its network.
- CPC’s offer does nothing to improve protections against contracting out – and the Employer thinks it can contract out parcel delivery under the current Urban agreement.
A strong no vote will show management we’re united, and we won’t settle for anything less than what we deserve now – and in the future. It will also show the Government that it can’t get away with attacking free and fair collective bargaining.
Finally, a strong no vote will show the Employer our votes aren’t for sale. CPC’s signing bonuses don’t roll into our wages and wouldn’t be pensionable. It is a sad attempt by a desperate employer to buy our votes.
Now, more than ever, postal workers need to stand together, in support of one another, in support of their Union! In the coming days, we’ll provide more information about why we all need to VOTE NO on CPC’s latest offers.
Remember: The Union is your best source of information about Negotiations. Do not fall for rumours or misinformation, above all from Management.
In solidarity,
Jan Simpson
National President
I've never had a job with easy days.
Does your job have you on your feet dealing with the public all day?
Does your job have you carrying 25kg sacks of paper outdoors in any weather?
Does your workplace look like this?
Most of the CUPW workers are doing physical labour which wears the body down.
Ask a carpenter or an electrician if he thinks he can work at the same pace past 50 or even 40. My SIL and my nephew who have those professions are moving away from the physical parts of their work as much as possible and into contracting and supervising.
@reallynicestamps wrote:I've never had a job with easy days.
Does your job have you on your feet dealing with the public all day?
Does your job have you carrying 25kg sacks of paper outdoors in any weather?
Does your workplace look like this?
Most of the CUPW workers are doing physical labour which wears the body down.
Ask a carpenter or an electrician if he thinks he can work at the same pace past 50 or even 40. My SIL and my nephew who have those professions are moving away from the physical parts of their work as much as possible and into contracting and supervising.
In my area of Toronto....
It's been many decades since I've seen a letter carrier lugging 25kg sacks of mail, they keep the mail in their Ford Transit which they DRIVE from one block to the next block and only carry the mail for that block.
Letter carriers rarely deal directly with the public, it's at least 25 years since I've had a face to face with a letter carrier.
A letter carrier works in the outdoors and rarely spends much time at their local post office which does not look like the picture you have posted.
Inside workers definitely do a bit more physical work but don't deal with the public at all and don't do more than anyone else that works in a warehouse. Those inside workers get paid better than almost any other type of of warehouse employees.
I'm not anti-union on principle but I find Jan Simpson to be very annoying (not really any more annoying than her processors).
https://www.talentcanada.ca/ottawa-puts-latest-canada-post-offer-up-for-a-vote-by-union-members/
Interesting take away........Larry Savage said the Kaplan report “undermined” CUPW’s bargaining position, and though the union went on strike late last year, it doesn’t have the capacity for that kind of labour action this time around.
“This makes government intervention increasingly likely in the event of a contract rejection,” he said.
Final Offer Votes: What We Know So Far
Tuesday June 17 2025
2023-2027/275
No. 101
On June 12, Minister of Jobs and Families Patty Hajdu granted Canada Post’s request and chose to force a vote on the Employer’s “best and final offers” for both postal bargaining units. Once again, the Government has stepped into our bargaining process, attacking our rights and taking the Employer’s side. We didn’t ask for this fight, but we are ready to face it.
We know members have lots of questions about the upcoming government-imposed votes. Here is what we can tell you right now.
Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) teleconference with the parties is to be scheduled
We will have a meeting with the CIRB, the body the Minister of Jobs and Families, has directed to conduct the votes. At the meeting, we will have the opportunity to make suggestions or raise questions and concerns relating to the specifics of the votes.
CPC has been ordered to file documents by end of day on June 18th. While the Union is waiting for these documents, we have started the work to prepare for this meeting. The CIRB will confirm the date and time of the meeting.
Voting Dates and Process
As of right now, we do not have any information on the voting dates. We only know that the Minister has asked for the vote to happen as soon as possible. We also do not know how members will cast their votes, or the process surrounding it. We will keep members up to date as we learn more.
Recommendation to VOTE NO
Our National Executive Board (NEB) and negotiating committees are unanimous in their recommendations for members to VOTE NO to CPC’s final offers. The NEB has a duty under the CUPW Constitution to make their recommendations known to the membership. Watch for more bulletins and communications and to stay informed about why it is so important to:
VOTE NO.
Our national overtime ban remains in effect.
T
In solidarity,
Carl Girouard
National Grievance Officer
CUPW negotiations: Understanding the offer
Employees represented by CUPW understandably want to learn about the final offer they will vote on for their bargaining unit.
Details about how and when to vote will be determined by the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB). In the meantime, Canada Post is working to ensure employees have the information they need to make an informed choice when it comes time to vote.
New information added to the offers website
We’ve added information to the offers website at canadapost.ca/offers:
- Did you know that only a small portion of collection and delivery is affected? For the duration of the collective agreement, Dynamic Routing will be implemented at no more than 10 facilities (3% of delivery facilities) for initial testing and validation.
- Letter carriers will also deliver in the same area each day. Their delivery area will be familiar and consistent every day, and they will have the same schedule every day.
- Did you know that work will be reassigned using a national, standardized approach? It’s an approach based on the day’s volumes and the time values for each route.
- Letter carriers will continue to deliver on their route and have the same start times day-to-day.
- Work will only be reassigned before letter carriers leave the depot. Additional work cannot be reassigned if letter carriers complete their work early and return to the depot. Letter carriers who complete their work earlier than planned will still be paid for their scheduled hours.
Full contractual language of the offer:
- As part of our commitment to transparency with employees about what they’re voting on, we’ve published the full contractual language of the offer presented to CUPW for the Urban bargaining unit.
About the vote
The vote will be conducted by the CIRB, which has published the Minister’s directive to the CIRB to hold the vote. We will share information about when and how to vote as soon as it’s available.
Employees in the Urban bargaining unit will vote on the Corporation’s offer to Urban employees; and employees in the RSMC bargaining unit will vote on the offer to RSMC employees. If a majority of employees who vote accept the offer, it will become the collective agreement for that unit.
More information
- Visit canadapost.ca/offers to learn about the offers.
- Read the Dynamic Routing fact sheet.
- Read the load leveling fact sheet.
- Read the full contractual language of the offer for the Urban bargaining unit.
- Read the Minister’s directive to the CIRB.
