Wednesday December 24, 2025 | NATIONAL NEWS [Reporting from VICTORIA, BC – Posted at 1:44 pm PT]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
[An earlier version of this article was posted on December 22, 2025]
Merry Christmas to everyone who depends on Canada Post services!
Canada Post and CUPW announced on December 22 that they have reached a tentative agreement.
A ratification vote by CUPW members will take place in January.
The new deal includes yearly pay increases to January 31, 2029.
No strike action at this time:
The union will be managing a ratification vote for CUPW-represented employees. During the ratification process, the parties have agreed not to engage in any strike or lockout activity.
Key highlights:
Changes to the collective agreements are itemized in detail by CUPW on their website, in three sections: common issues affecting both bargaining units, the RSMC unit, and the Urban unit.
CUPW’s comparison of the previous offer and the current one are posted online.
As stated by Canada Post, as part of the tentative agreements the parties have agreed to:
- Five-year agreements that expire on January 31, 2029 (Urban and RSMC).
- Higher wage increases: 6.5% increase in year one (including 5% already received) and 3.0% in year two. For years 3, 4 and 5, annual wage increases would match the annual inflation rate of the Consumer Price Index (Urban and RSMC).
- No changes to employees’ Defined Benefit pension (Urban and RSMC).
- An enhanced health benefits plan for employees and better income replacement for injury-on-duty leave and leave under the short-term disability program (Urban and RSMC).
- 6 non-carry over personal days locked into the collective agreement, for a total of 13 personal days in the agreement (Urban and RSMC).
- New operating model to support weekend parcel delivery (Urban and RSMC)
- Maintaining the current job security provisions for Urban employees (Urban)
- Enhancing the current job security provisions for RSMC employees (RSMC).
- Adjusting the number of corporate post offices protected in the collective agreement to 393 (Urban)
- Moving employees to an hourly rate of pay (RSMC).
Flashback to 2024:
Last year at this time, Canada Post was recovering from a month-long labour strike (mid November to mid December) that seriously disrupted the holiday parcel delivery season.
Financial recovery:
It will be a long road for Canada Post to restore its financial solvency. An operating loan of $1.034 billion from the federal government in January has pretty much run out. So long as guaranteed wages (even if there’s no work) are in the mix, the steep climb to financial recovery will be a challenging one.
Shifting now to more operations for weekend parcel delivery (urban and rural/suburban) will help with the slow recovery, as the corporation will be getting closer to meeting what consumers require.
Essential services:
In addition to the treat of receiving Christmas cards and parcel by postal mail, Canada Post maintains a thread of essential core function for Canadian society including voting by mail during elections, and the delivery of financial documents and credit cards, and legal documents.
===== RELATED:
- Canada Post & their workers on a journey to new realities (October 6, 2025)
- Canada Post advises business customers about new US prepaid export duties (August 24, 2025)
- What can possibly break the Canada Post bargaining stalemate? (August 6, 2025)
- Quietly stabilizing Canada Post with a $1.034 billion loan (January 24, 2025)
- NEWS SECTIONS: CANADA POST | CHRISTMAS SEASON