Home Editorials Canada Post workers strike set to begin on May 23

Canada Post workers strike set to begin on May 23

CUPW has given strike notice for midnight May 22 | Walkouts to start effective 12::01 am on Friday May 23, 2025.

Island Social Trends

May 20, 2025

CUPW, postal workers, strike — Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) employees on the picket line in Langford, Dec 12, 2024. [Mary P Brooke / Island Social Trends]

Tuesday May 20, 2025 | NATIONAL NEWS [Reporting from VICTORIA, BC] | Posted at 5:20 am PT

by Mary P Brooke, Editor | Island Social Trends

Another postal workers strike is looming on the horizon across Canada.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) issued a strike notice to the Canada Post Corporation over the long weekend.

Strike action (walkouts, bare bones service) is set to being at 12:01 am on Friday May 23, 2025.

There is still time for negotiation but that step is likely no longer palatable or possible given the chasm between the positions of the corporation and the workers union.

See analysis of why the Canada Post & CPUW negotiations fell apart and the recommendations were fruitless.

Strike impacts on customers:

If a strike does go ahead, parcels will be held at Canada Post facilities until the strike is over.

Canada Post, parcel — Parcel delivery is currently the mainstay of Canada Post’s revenue stream.

All letter mail will cease except for the continued delivery of social security cheques.

When eventually back to work (either by negotiation or legislative directive), workers will have a backlog of parcels and mail to deal with. That would extend the disruptive period for customers even further into the summer.

Timeline overview:

There was a postal strike just before year-end 2024 which significantly interrupted the holiday shopping and parcel delivery season for households and in particular small businesses that rely on postal delivery for shipping their products.

A consultation period took place in January and February 2025, with a commissioner’s report issued May 15 that did little to provide answers for resolving the differences between the corporation and the workers.

That 32-day strike from mid-November to mid-December was financially costly but also pushed more people to find delivery alternatives from which they will not return. If local, people will pick up physical items or cheques; if at a distance people will order online and let the receiver do the pick up at their end.

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Shifting to the future:

Canada Post knows it is in financial trouble (revenue losses every year since 2018) and that changes to the employee model are needed (e.g. using part-time workers on weekends for parcel delivery).

In particular, the cost of delivering mail with an inefficient model (i.e. postal workers walk their routes even if there is no mail for some or many of the households) is burdening Canada Post finances such that new advancements cannot yet be undertaken.

But Canada Post has not yet grasped a vision of a revamped crown corporation that does more than deliver letters and parcels. The world of AI and digital delivery awaits. [See analysis of how the new Carney cabinet could dovetail AI with jobs of the future.]

The CUPW workers are understandably wanting to keep their unionized jobs but are clearly not yet ready to embrace a new type of future with Canada Post that is still in service to the communities that workers speak so highly of.

hads off my post office, cupw — Canada Postal Workers Union has launched a “Hands Off My Post Office” campaign to help preserve postal outlets in smaller communities. [CUPW]

The CUPW Hands off My Post Office campaign points to how important postal outlets are in smaller towns. They see a way forward through service expansion, not cuts. CUPW says: “Canada Post can play a key role in strengthening Canada’s economy in the face of uncertainty, offer much needed new services like senior check-ins, postal banking, and community hubs, and bring new revenue to the public post office.”

But in urban areas the use of community mailboxes has been the way of the ‘future’ for decades now. The CUPW claim is that “community mailboxes lower property values and pose safety risks, especially for seniors and those with mobility issues” but people seem to have been accommodating community mailboxes into the urban lifestyle now for years. Many people don’t visit those mailboxes daily, but oftentimes just once a week in their busy lives.