The union representing more than 55,000 postal workers has called for a nationwide suspension of overtime work, saying its negotiators will continue to assess the latest contract proposals from the government-owned postal service.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) announced on May 22 its members have been instructed to decline any work exceeding eight hours per day and 40 hours per week—a decision it characterized as “legal strike action.”
The latest development came just hours before the midnight deadline on May 23, when postal workers were slated to walk off the job. The decision to suspend overtime instead was made after an evening meeting between the two parties failed to result in a deal, the union said.
It also came after Canada Post rejected the union’s call for a two-week “truce” earlier this week that would have given workers time to review the latest offers in detail.
“At this time, the Union has decided to proceed with an overtime ban to minimize disruptions to the public, and lost days to members,” CUPW national president Jan Simpson said in a statement. “Additional actions may take place in the future including but not limited to: if Canada Post changes our working conditions, suspends our benefits, or begins layoffs.”
Canada Post spokeswoman Lisa Liu said the meeting with the union lasted less than half an hour and raised “only a small number of the many outstanding issues in an informal manner.”
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“It was unfortunately not enough to demonstrate meaningful progress,” Liu said in an emailed statement.
Canada Post urged the union to respond “with urgency” to the offers the government agency submitted earlier this week, Liu said.
“The comprehensive offers we put forward provide increased wages, removed key sticking points and included changes needed to compete in the parcel delivery business,” Liu said.
But the union had said the offers “fall short,” emphasizing that employees are requesting a 19 percent increase in wages following years of high inflation.
CUPW originally informed management that employees planned to hit the picket line as of midnight on May 23, three days after the union issued a strike notice to Canada Post, the Crown agency that employs its workers. The 72-hour strike notice would have applied to the bargaining units representing the union’s urban and rural workers.
Under the new directive, postal workers will stay on the job but will refuse all overtime, Simpson said. All letter carriers are required to return to the depot after eight hours of work, regardless of whether they have completed their assigned routes.
“This is a legal strike action,” Simpson said. “All CUPW members must follow this direction. You cannot be disciplined for participating in a legal strike action.”
Negotiations
The union and Canada Post have been at odds for more than a year as the two sides have attempted to hammer out a deal at the bargaining table.
The issue of part-time weekend employment has emerged as one of the most significant obstacles in the negotiations.
Under the terms of recent collective agreements, mail carriers receive extra pay for working on the weekend because these shifts are relatively uncommon. Canada Post has advocated for the deployment of part-time workers as needed on weekends and during busy periods rather than incurring overtime expenses for full-time staff.
The union said management wanted to increase the number of part-time staff in urban regions by 20 percent, stating that some of those employees would be compelled to work up to 30 hours per week.
A federally commissioned report released last week recommended the inclusion of part-time employees as part of a range of sweeping reforms.
The report from Commissioner William Kaplan said Canada Post is “facing an existential crisis,” noting that it is “effectively insolvent, or bankrupt.”
The report proposed a shift toward package delivery, alongside the closure of rural post offices and an increase in community mailboxes—changes that would reverse a long-standing moratorium on both and extend beyond the collective bargaining parameters. It also recommended ending daily door-to-door letter mail delivery for homes but maintaining it for businesses.
Kaplan also suggested dynamic routing and part-time positions that offer compensation similar to that of full-time positions. He opposed the notion of “gigified jobs”—freelance work characterized by frequently changing pay rates and a lack of benefits.
The union has largely rejected the report’s findings, saying the report “simply regurgitates Canada Post’s proposals and positions.”
“What we have seen so far has left us disappointed—but not surprised,” union spokeswoman Siân Griffiths said. “The union, band councillors, municipalities, international organizations—and the public—took the time to research and send in thorough submissions in our support. All were dismissed in the report.”
The union has said its negotiators continue to review and analyze the content of the global offers received from Canada Post and “will provide more details soon.”
Canada Post said it is focused on reaching collective agreements that prioritize the protection and improvement of wages and benefits while also recognizing the current financial circumstances of the corporation. The Crown corporation has recorded losses of more than $3 billion before tax since 2018.
Liu said the “comprehensive offers” put forward by Canada Post provide wage increases, while removing “key sticking points.” It also included the changes needed to compete in the parcel delivery business while reflecting the corporation’s “financial and operational realities.”
The federal government announced repayable funding of up to $1.034 billion for Canada Post in January to prevent insolvency, but Liu said the lack of a deal is threatening the postal agency’s already strained finances.
“The threat of a strike has already had a significant impact on Canada Post as customers have either moved to other delivery providers or have cancelled mailings to avoid their items being trapped by another disruption,” Liu said.
If workers were to hit the picket lines, it would halt delivery of nearly 8.5 million letters and 1.1 million parcels per weekday, based on 2023 figures.
The disruption would also deepen the company’s growing financial hole. It notched an $803-million operating loss in the first nine months of 2024, part of $3.8 billion in losses since 2018.
It would also be the second work stoppage in the past six months.
A 32-day strike during the busy Christmas season last November and December left millions of letters and parcels in limbo and a massive backlog to sort through when the work stoppage ended.
Ottawa asked the federal labour board to send workers back to the job in December when talks were at an impasse and a strike was disrupting holiday mail deliveries.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business estimates the strike resulted in an estimated $1.6 billion in losses for small businesses.
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
