Canada Post tables new offers to union that include job cut provisions

Canada Post’s latest contract offers to striking postal workers has many of the same terms as its “final offers” in May, but removes a signing bonus and now has provisions related to job cuts expected ahead.

The offers presented Friday come a little over a week after the federal government announced plans to transform the financially strapped service, including ending daily mail delivery, closing some rural post offices and moving almost all Canadian households to community mailboxes.

The roughly 55,000-member Canadian Union of Postal Workers said the decision was a direct attack on workers as it promptly declared a countrywide strike.

Canada Post has supported the planned changes and its latest offer includes provisions to see it through the expected shrinking of the service, including a temporary suspension of its “job security for life” terms as it goes through the transformation, as well as lifting a moratorium on the closure of 493 corporate post offices in urban and suburban areas.

The corporation said it plans to offer voluntary departure incentives of up to 78 weeks base pay and will only use layoffs if other methods like attrition and voluntary departures don’t achieve the needed reduction targets. 

The offer includes many of the same terms presented in May, including a 13.59 per cent compounded wage increase over four years, up to seven weeks vacation and cost of living allowance to protect against unforeseen inflation.

It does not include the signing bonus in the May offer, worth $1,000 for urban carriers, as Canada Post said the multiple strikes had deteriorated its financial picture.

“Canada Post’s new offers are within the limit of what the corporation can afford while maintaining good jobs and benefits for employees over the long-term,” spokeswoman Lisa Liu said in a statement.

The union said ahead of receiving the offer that it will carefully review and analyze any proposals to see whether they address the needs of postal workers, their families and the public who rely on the service.

CUPW did not provide comment on the latest proposal. 

On the union’s social media feed on X Friday, there was a post raising concerns about executive pay at Canada Post, and a link to picket line locations. 

The union has pushed back against government plans to transform the service, saying any changes need to be made through meaningful consultation, not unilateral action. 

The proposed changes come as Canada Post’s financial situation remains dire and the company claims it was losing upwards of $10 million per day over the summer as labour uncertainty stretched on. The postal service has relied on federal support to keep the lights on in recent years.

An Industrial Inquiry Commission report earlier this year found the Crown corporation was effectively insolvent and suggested a host of measures to keep it afloat — suggestions the federal government adopted wholesale in its announcement last week.

CUPW negotiator Jim Gallant said last week the union understands Canada Post’s financial troubles but that the solutions the federal government is offering are “extreme.”

He said the union wants the countrywide strike to push the federal government to walk back its overhaul of Canada Post and hold a public mandate review.

In an interview with The Canadian Press on Monday, Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu did not rule out federal intervention to end the latest strike, but she also said Canada Post needs to put a new offer on the table quickly and the union needs to consider any proposal seriously.

She said the onus is on the parties to come together after nearly two years of bargaining to chart a new course for the struggling postal service.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has warned the strike will have a “massive impact” on small businesses that rely on Canada Post, but the organization encouraged Ottawa to push ahead with planned reforms. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2025.

— With files from Craig Lord in Ottawa.