Striking Canada Post union urges Ottawa to walk back sweeping mandate changes

OTTAWA — The union representing Canada Post workers is urging Ottawa to walk back sweeping changes to the postal service’s mandate as mail carriers take to picket lines across the country.

The federal government’s Thursday announcement clearing Canada Post to end daily door-to-door delivery for millions and shutter some post offices has changed the nature of negotiations between the Crown corporation and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.

Canada Post was set to table new global offers to CUPW on Friday. Corporation spokesman Jon Hamilton confirmed in an interview that Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound’s announcement Thursday forced the Crown corporation to revise those proposals.

CUPW negotiator Jim Gallant said in an interview that the union wasn’t necessarily shocked by the minister’s announcement, but was surprised by how far the overhaul went.

Canada Post said it welcomes the measures announced Thursday, which include expanding community mailboxes to four million more addresses and ending a moratorium on closing some rural post offices.

Lightbound said Thursday that the government is responding to a revenue crisis at Canada Post driven by the decline in letter mail and the Crown corporation’s small share of the parcel market.

CUPW on Friday called the federal government’s changes a “direct attack” on the future of the postal service.

“We’re not saying that Canada Post doesn’t have troubles,” Gallant said. “We’re just saying that these these are extreme ways to fix things – some things that don’t need to be fixed.”

CUPW said it was expecting the federal government to launch a mandate review for the postal service next month.

Gallant said that Ottawa opted instead to adopt wholesale the recommendations from William Kaplan, who was appointed by the feds to lead an industrial inquiry commission probe into the labour dispute and Canada Post’s finances earlier this year. That commission found the postal service was effectively insolvent.

The goal of the countrywide strike, Gallant said, is to get Canadians’ support for a full mandate review that’s open to witnesses from the public.

“We need the government to be honest with the Canadian public and walk this back,” he said.

Gallant also cast doubt on the estimated size of Canada Post’s daily losses, which the Crown corporation has pegged at $10 million per day amid an extended period of labour uncertainty.

The postal service has relied on federal bailouts to stay afloat in recent years.

Hamilton said there’s still a “significant gap” between Canada Post and the union, but the new offers will reflect the federal government’s changes and a broad directive to get the postal service on solid footing and reduce the burden on taxpayers.

Canada Post and CUPW have been in contract negotiations for nearly two years and have yet to reach an agreement on wages and other structural reforms to the postal service’s workforce.

Hamilton said that when the employer and the union can’t agree on the state of Canada Post’s finances, it’s hard to come to common ground.

CUPW sought wage hikes of 19 per cent over four years in its August response to the company, up from the roughly 13 per cent proposed by Canada Post in May.

Canada Post claimed in a statement Friday that CUPW’s latest offers would have added $2.8 billion in extra costs over the length of the agreement. That kind of money is “not on the table,” Hamilton said.

“We’re going to put forward offers that treat our people fairly and but are affordable at the same time and allow us to grow our business,” he said.

“At a time when the government is looking at how it can rein in and tighten its belt, we need to do the same.”

Canada Post’s plight was the subject of some pointed exchanges in the House of Commons on Friday.

Bloc Québécois MP Alexis Deschênes said in French during question period that the federal government “dropped an atomic bomb” on the contract negotiations.

Steve MacKinnon, government House leader, defended Ottawa’s intervention as the Crown corporation bleeds money.

“We can’t continue to have millions, billions of losses from Canada Post,” he said in French.

NDP MP Jenny Kwan said earlier in the day that the federal government ought to invest in Canada Post to improve its service and help it compete. She suggested Canada Post’s large footprint could be leveraged for electric charging stations or community hubs in rural areas.

Hamilton said the Canada Post of the future will need to be smaller to survive.

Expanding community mailboxes means fewer postal workers are needed to get mail to the same number of homes, he said.

Hamilton suggested the Crown corporation could “lean into attrition” to find cost savings, with an estimated 14,000 workers set to retire over the next five years.

“We have room to make changes and still provide a great service,” he said.

Lightbound suggested Thursday that management contracts could be included in cost-cutting reviews at Canada Post.

Gallant said it would be a “show of good faith” to trim executive salaries at the post office. He argued the people in charge at Canada Post aren’t as familiar with the business as mail carriers and haven’t properly understood when CUPW offers suggestions.

“We need people on the other side that actually know what we do and know how to fix this,” he said.

By hitting the picket lines, the union is ramping up the strike actions it has taken since May, which have included a ban on overtime work and, more recently, on delivering flyers.

Canada Post is completely shuttering operations during the strike, with a few exceptions — such as delivering pension cheques and social assistance like disability support payments.

No new mail will otherwise be accepted and Canada Post says items already in the postal service’s system will be held and delivered after the labour disruption ends.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2025.

Craig Lord, The Canadian Press