Canada Post and the union representing its postal workers said Monday they have finalized tentative agreements on new contracts, potentially bringing an end to the long-running labour dispute.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) said in a statement that ratification votes on the deals for its urban and rural units will take place early in the new year.
Union leadership is urging members to approve the agreements, national president Jan Simpson said.
“The tentative agreements deliver wages increases, with protections against inflation, improved benefits, and job security,” Simpson said in a statement.
“These five-year agreements provide much needed stability to postal workers and the communities across the country that we are proud to serve.”
The tentative agreements come more than two years after negotiations began, a period that saw two national strikes and growing financial instability for the Crown corporation.
The two sides reached “agreements in principle” a month ago that they said would form the basis of new tentative agreements. Negotiations since then had been focused on hammering out the contractual language.
What's in the deals?
In a statement, Canada Post said the new five-year contracts will raise employees’ wages by 6.5 per cent in the first year and another three per cent in the second year.
The remaining three years will see annual wage increases that match the annual inflation rate as measured by the consumer price index.
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The company said all workers will also get an “enhanced health benefits plan,” while rural and suburban employees will get enhanced job security provisions. Urban employees will see their existing job security measures maintained under their new contract.
Canada Post said the deals also create a “new operating model to support weekend parcel delivery,” resolving one of the major disputes between the two sides in negotiations. No further details on that operating model were provided Monday.
As well, the deals will adjust the number of corporate post offices protected from closure to 393, Canada Post said.
CUPW said it “successfully blocked major concessions demanded by Canada Post,” including by preserving the existing pension plan for current and future employees and stopping “major changes to work schedules and processes that would negatively impact workers and their families.”
'Difficult negotiations'
The union noted negotiations have been “difficult” since they began in November 2023.
Canada Post had long argued it could not meet the union’s demands as it struggled financially due to declining letter mail and the rise of private parcel delivery competitors.
The Crown corporation says it lost over a billion dollars last year and is on track to lose even more this year.
A weeks-long strike that coincided with last year’s winter holiday shopping season cost both Canada Post and small businesses that rely on the national mail carrier hundreds of millions of dollars.
Postal workers went on strike again this fall after the federal government announced new measures to save the company, including reducing letter delivery standards and shifting entirely to community mailboxes.
Canada Post will also be allowed to close some post offices in areas once considered rural but have since grown to become suburban or urban, the government says. Both Ottawa and Canada Post have vowed that mail service will be maintained in rural, remote and Indigenous communities despite the closures.
The company’s action plan on how to implement the changes is currently being reviewed by the federal government.
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