Friday July 18, 2025 | NATIONAL NEWS | VICTORIA, BC [Updated 2 pm & 7:54 pm on July 19, 2025]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Employees of the Canada Post Corporation who are represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) will have the opportunity to vote on the final offers from their employer, starting Monday July 21, 2025.
Last month, the Minister of Jobs and Families had approved Canada Post’s request to have employees as represented by CUPW vote on the corporation’s final offers for collective agreements.
This Wednesday, July 16, the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) announced that voting will take place between July 21 and August 1. Employees will vote privately, either online or by phone.
CIRB is the independent administrative tribunal conducting the vote.
The voting is confidential, but the Canada Postal Workers Union (CUPW) is essentially calling the voting process a way to get around union authority but on their website offers all the details on how CUPW members can vote.
More than 53,000 employees:
More than 53,000 CUPW-represented employees in the Urban and RSMC (Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers) bargaining units will be voting on their respective offer.
“If a majority of employees who vote in each unit accept the offer, it will become the collective agreement for that unit,” says Canada Post in a message to its business customers on July 17.
Who can vote:
Voting will be open to all employees in the Urban and RSMC (Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers) bargaining units.
Employees from each unit will vote on their respective offer. If a majority of voters in that bargaining unit accept their offer, it will become the new collective agreement for that unit and bring resolution to this extended round of negotiations.
What employees will be voting on:
CUPW-represented employees in the Urban and RSMC bargaining units will be voting on their respective best and final offers which Canada Post presented on May 28, 2025.
The Corporation has put forward offers that reflect the company’s current realities while protecting items that are important to employees. They also include needed changes to help begin to rebuild the company’s parcel business. The full offers are available at canadapost.ca/offers and include the following:
- Wage increases of 6% in year one; 3% in year two; 2% in year three; and 2% in year four (13.59% compounded).
- A signing bonus ($1,000 for full-time employees; $500 for all others).
- Maintaining their defined benefit pension and industry-leading job security.
- Creation of new part-time positions, with predictable hours and benefits, that would help the company provide weekend parcel delivery and optimize delivery during the week.
- Phased changes to the delivery model to better reflect volumes, avoid overburdening and provide better service.
What the corporation wants:
Canada Post will increase wages but also wants to be able to deliver on weekends and hire part-time employees in order to be adaptable in a fast-changing business environment.
Companies likes Amazon deliver quickly, sometimes overnight.
Many Canadian small businesses rely on Canada Post for comparatively affordable shipping rates. But, in June, Canada Post saw losses from operations increase to approximately $10 million a day – more than double the daily average losses in June 2024. These record losses are clearly unsustainable, especially if the uncertainty continues.
What the union wants:
CUPW has been maintaining their overtime ban but is not taking any additional actions such as a rotating or full-scale strike.
For the upcoming vote, CUPW is telling their union members to “stay united, protect your vote, vote no”.
In a statement to its members on July 15 CUPW said “there is every reason to assume that a strong “NO” vote will convince CPC to amend its offer and negotiate an agreement with CUPW”. But that is indeed an assumption, with guarantee that’s the way things will turn out.
A ‘no vote’ could bring things right back to where they are, i.e. a protracted stalemate.
Commitment to business:
On May 23, 2025, CUPW restarted its strike action by announcing a ban on overtime, which reignited the uncertainty for customers and Canadians still recovering from the union’s national strike in November and December 2024.
“To continue serving Canadians while seeking a resolution to the negotiations, Canada Post has maintained full staffing across the country,” said Canada Post in a news release on July 16.
“We know the ongoing labour uncertainty has had a significant impact on your business and customers,” said Canada Post in an email to its business customers yesterday.
“As a result, you have had to adapt your business operations. This is not the position we wanted to put you in. Our intent has always been to reach negotiated agreements that will enable us to move forward and better serve Canadians and Canadian businesses,” said Canada Post.
Canada Post says it is proposing critical changes to its delivery model that will help the company grow its parcel business. Canada Post wants to “meet the evolving needs of Canadian businesses and Canadians, help protect jobs and preserve a vital national service”.
Already planning for the Christmas season:
“As your business begins planning for the upcoming holiday season, we hope to provide you with the certainty you need and be in a better position to meet your expectations,” said Canada Post in their email to business customers.
That of course harkins back to how the postal workers strike decimated many small businesses during the November-December online shopping and shipping period ahead of Christmas 2024.
===== RELATED:
NEWS SECTIONS: BUSINESS & ECONOMY | DELIVERY & SHIPPING | CANADA POST