CUPW negotiations: Canada Post continues to negotiate with CUPW as union announces strike mandate
October 25, 2024, 12:05 pm
81 comments
Today, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) announced it has received a strike mandate from its members. With the cooling-off period coming to an end on November 2, Canada Post and CUPW must approach the negotiations with greater urgency to avoid a labour disruption.
The parties officially began negotiations on November 15, 2023 and have met consistently since then.
Labour disruption would have significant consequences
It is critical that both parties focus their energies on resolving outstanding issues to reach negotiated agreements. A labour disruption would have significant consequences for the millions of Canadians who rely on Canada Post while deepening the company’s already serious financial situation, as customers move their holiday shipments to other carriers.
On September 25, Canada Post presented proposals to protect and enhance what’s important to employees, within the Corporation’s financial constraints, while making the changes that are necessary to better serve Canadians in today’s demanding parcel delivery market.
Commitment to finding common ground
CUPW presented counter-offers to Canada Post on October 7, and the two sides continue to negotiate.
Canada Post’s goal throughout these negotiations with CUPW has always been to reach negotiated agreements, without any labour disruption. The company remains committed to proceeding with urgency and finding the common ground necessary to reach agreements.
Key dates in the negotiations process
- August 13: The parties moved into a 60-day conciliation period with the assistance of neutral conciliators.
- October 12: The conciliation period expired without extension, and the parties moved into a 21-day cooling-off period, with negotiations continuing.
- October 15: The federal government appointed mediators to assist the parties in negotiations.
- November 2: The cooling off period will end. Only after this date would either party be in a position to initiate a labour disruption (following a minimum notice of 72 hours). This timeline means no labour disruption can occur before November 3.
More information
Watch for further updates on the Negotiations Hub or in mailings to your home. On the Negotiations Hub you can also sign up for email updates, directly to your inbox.
CUPW Urban
Union? More like spewnion.
The Union does not care about the well being of it members . It is a shame that we have to go through this nightmare again and again just because the few radicals want to stay home.
Shame on the Union for hurting the economy , small business and the population in general.
I hope that one day the Union disappears for good.
“The company does not care about its employees. It’s a shame that we have to go through this nightmare again and again, just because a few radicals want to demand cuts. Shame on the company for hurting the economy, small business and the population in general. I hope that one day the cut backers disappear for good.” See how I fixed that for you???
Thank you ! Well said
Actually both don’t care. They sit there for a YEAR and came up with nothing but, facade offers, to pretend they were negotiating. The only ones hurt are the workers and the customers.
Future management comment. Fight no choice if they get want they want not worth doing. Don’t be sheep!
Canada Post please put your foot down and separate the wage scale for inside and outside workers. These are completely different jobs doing different functions and should be compensated accordingly. Inside workers should not be making the same wage as outside workers. Everybody in the company knows this from top to bottom. If a CUPW member wants to make more money then they become an outside worker and take on more responsibility and if a CUPW member that is already an outside worker chooses an easier inside job. It is known they are doing so in accordance with a lower wage to perform and easier and less stressful job.
I agreed, I worked inside, I could never be a letter carrier.
When it’s -40 and blizzard you guys are outside delivering our mail.
We had a different union and wage when we were represented by Letter carrier union of Canada. Like the US postal service inside union and national Association letter carriers. They would never go back.
Strange. No comment section for the CPAA or PSAC bullentins. Comments allowed only for urban RSMC bullentins. Why is that cpc? Post a new bulletin explaining this.
2 week strike.nov 3 to 16. Being forced back to work by Justin t. Then accepting a contract a week later that will be worse then canada post last offer. What will I do with less money fewer benefits and high cost of living . Oh maybe buy that loaf of breaded I always wanted. Nice to see the year of negotiations didn’t go to waste. Cheers.
why would you get forced back? This isn’t even newsworthy anymore. Keep that in mind
Only reason because it’s getting close to Dec and Christmas
Parliament is on hold and cannot deal with any legislation currently..it looks like they will either prorogue government or trudeau will walk away. So they won’t be able to legislate us back if this continues
Strike, no surrender no retreat we are not sheep or donkeys stream line management.
🙄
While Trudeau did legislate us back to work, arbitration was still in play.
It was Harper who forced us back in 2011 with a worse offer than Canada Post gave.
We want a contact; it would be best both parties come to an agreement as soon as possible.
As we already know, IF there is another offer from CPC it will come at the last minute. The union cannot keep stalling, put the strike notice in asap, even if an offer is received, and be ready for Nov 3. This company is dragging its feet.
you cant put notice in until Nov 3 as it is cooling off period until then. Read the article
I believe Cupw can give Cpc the strike notice 72 hours before Nov 3 so we can strike on Nov 3
We are told we will be striking Monday if no contract accepted
You Read the Article
Is postman is next on this list?
Occupations that are now extinct or rare disappeared due to advances in technology, while others were deemed undesirable or dangerous professions and were phased out with improved labour laws. Jobs have appeared and waned throughout the course of human history, and quite often, it was for the better.
The bowling pinsetter, human alarm clock, ice cutters, rat catcher, lamplighter, milkman, log driver, phone operator, resurrectionist, soda jerk, book peddlers, daguerreotypist, telegraphist, the human computer, clock keeper, film projectionist, candy girls, elevator operator, town crier, gandy dancer, scissors grinder, knife man, nomenclator, lector, linotype operators, scribe, calligrapher, crossing sweepers, telegram messengers.
Haha, think it already is! Delivery agent seems more fitting. Also like the idea of PT with additional hours as required to operate. If there are concerns about overburdening and the stress on one’s body and injury, maybe this isn’t career work anymore. From what I can tell the job of a postman was much different than that of a delivery agent. I think they used to spend their free afternoons in the pub, not at another job.
Afternoons we were at the Pub in the morning the supervisor would join us in the afternoon .
get rid of your cellphones and emails if you want to save the inevitable!!!
Still we have 1/4 of walking point of calls. About half of detached houses are door-to-door. My route has 420 POC and all walking. I used to deliver CMBs(450 POC) and 160 door-to-door before and it was much less walking and injury. I can’t understand why the management are not pay attention to CMB instead of SSD. Through CMB, 20 percent cost saving is possible through smaller staffs. Of course, CMB should be applied slowly to avoid massive layoffs.
Because the people who get door to door want to keep it, so it became a political issue. Cancelling CMB conversion was part of the Liberals promises many years ago , and they followed through with that promise when they were elected.
They SSD and CMB even more savings.
SO, CP is being run into the ground by alllll the Extra Chef’s that are spoiling the soup!! I worked CP for over 20 years in various positions, in various provinces! I left before I turned 50…took the pension money and ran! Now I am back as a casual because it is a basic gig, that can pay some bills! I was away for about 3 years and came back to a system that has been messed up by upper management that has become a glut…bloated system of paper pushers that are sucking the government teet! CP is not paying the actual workers!! If they would just pay the WORKERS…the GRUNTS that are on the street and who are the Front Line workers, this could be a decent business! I do not know if the plan of the corporation is to run it into the ground and make it private! That would make no sense! People in small communities of Canada…need the product! Parcels…actual letter mail, and such! You can say that letter mail is down, but there are people across this country who still need the service! PAY THE ACTUAL WORKERS….not just the Paper Pushers in the upper office positions! The 7 Managers doing pretty much the same job, or the multiple Superintendents…etc etc….who get silly bonuses!! YES, I am aware of how those monies get spent, since I have known Managers, Superintendents, and other upper office folks that are getting PAID, for minimal work and so called bright ideas! Again, working the Government Teet!! Now, that being said, CUPW is not worth the union dues being paid!! No back bone! Stronger union is required! Federal Employees union, or Teamsters! Of course CPC would not like that, but whatever! CUPW supports the Lazy, corrupt people that work various positions mostly inside!! LMAO!! Lets be honest, there are quite a few people that use the system and work it well! Inside workers work the system like champs! They play CUPW like a fiddle! I hate to say it, but there is a certain people that have come in and learn to work the system! God bless them! They are just playing the game that is in place!! There are also Upper Union folks that work the system as well!! I know people who do it well!! Makes me shake my head! Some of these union folks are shooting themselves in the foot! As for outside workers…well, they have been killing themselves for years! This new system put in place by CP is a bit of an over kill, but understandable!! Folks out there knocking out routes in 4 or 5 hours, and getting paid 8! Come on!! You did not think CP was going to crack down and say…Gee, if you can do that work in short time, lets top it up? SMH….people come on!! There needs to be a decent balance on both sides! CP…PAY YOUR GRUNTS!! CUPW…step up and stop supporting the folks that don’t do the job, just to get those union dues!!! Just my thoughts on this whole system! Lets see how this strike and drama plays out!
SO, CP is being run into the ground by alllll the Extra Chef’s that are spoiling the soup!! I worked CP for over 20 years in various positions, in various provinces! I left before I turned 50…took the pension money and ran! Now I am back as a casual because it is a basic gig, that can pay some bills! I was away for about 3 years and came back to a system that has been messed up by upper management that has become a glut…bloated system of paper pushers that are sucking the government teet! CP is not paying the actual workers!! If they would just pay the WORKERS…the GRUNTS that are on the street and who are the Front Line workers, this could be a decent business! I do not know if the plan of the corporation is to run it into the ground and make it private! That would make no sense! People in small communities of Canada…need the product! Parcels…actual letter mail, and such! You can say that letter mail is down, but there are people across this country who still need the service! PAY THE ACTUAL WORKERS….not just the Paper Pushers in the upper office positions! The 7 Managers doing pretty much the same job, or the multiple Superintendents…etc etc….who get silly bonuses!! YES, I am aware of how those monies get spent, since I have known Managers, Superintendents, and other upper office folks that are getting PAID, for minimal work and so called bright ideas! Again, working the Government Teet!! Now, that being said, CUPW is not worth the union dues being paid!! No back bone! They support the Lazy, Corrupt people that work various positions! Lets be honest, there are quite a few people that use the system and work it well! Inside workers work the system like champs! They play CUPW like a fiddle! I hate to say it, but there is a certain persuasion of people that have come in and learn to work the system! God bless them! They are just playing the game that is in place!! There are also Upper Union folks that work the system as well!! I know people who do it well!! Makes me shake my head! Some of these union folks are shooting themselves in the foot! As for outside workers…well, they have been killing themselves for years! This new system put in place by CP is a bit of an over kill, but understandable!! Folks out there knocking out routes in 4 or 5 hours, and getting paid 8! Come on!! You did not think CP was going to crack down and say…Gee, if you can do that work in short time, lets top it up? SMH….people come on!! There needs to be a decent balance on both sides! CP…PAY YOUR GRUNTS!! CUPW…step up and stop supporting the folks that don’t do the job, just to get those union dues!!! Just my thoughts on this whole system! Lets see how this strike and drama plays out!
That has got be the most exclamation points ever used in one paragraph!
Times 2. Only thing they will post in this site. Purely corporate forum. All the intelligent posts get deleted. Don’t waste your time reading it.
Canada Post cant get rid of lousy employees because their union will not allow it. They pay dues, so they are entitled to the full protection of the union. Want to get rid of the lazy ones?….. talk to your union.
They could. It’s more of a case of the supervisors and management not going through the process correctly. If they fitted there I’s and cross there t’s they would be able to fire people. But there lazy and incompetent, that’s why the arbitrators give people there jobs back. It’s the wrong people running the company that’s the biggest issue. Way to many managers and directors in this old boys club.
The lazy ones are management.
The news report they put out should at least be accurate. It says they lost $3b since 2018, but we all know it should say, they spent $3b more than they made. It’s like an irresponsible person with a credit card…
Use to work for Canada Post. They managed to fire me after an injury on duty. They wanted me gone because I complained about the corruption and nepotism at Canada post. They use injuries to fire people who complain about this corruption. Entire management needs to go and be privatized.
100% true they hire than try to fire you.
Sorry but been around for 35yrs and hardly anyone gets fired the union will save you unless it’s a legit firing
Take a minute a look at news to see how relevant we really are. Oh right there essentially isn’t anything about us.. Canada who?! What?! For the sake of our existence these 2 sides better come to their senses and get something done, or we are going to be in a worse off position than we already are. 18% over 4, let them have 7 day delivery and SSD (it’s already a done deal anyhow) and leave the pension alone. Done!
Your idea makes a lot of sense. Too bad our incompetent unprofessional union would never go for it. The CUPW execs at the national and local level are excited about the chance to go on strike, and march around with picket signs, screaming and yelling. Meanwhile the 90% of members who want a negotiated settlement realize both sides will have to compromise. Our members will simply lose thousands of dollars each which will never be made up by our eventual raise. Canada Post will lose even more business. All because of the brilliant master-plan of CUPW. Hard to accept that we pay $1200 dollars a year for this kind of representation!
100%Tue
100%True
If 90% of the members are against a strike then they should have turned up at the vote. As it was, the members who did turn up to vote were almost entirely in favour of supporting strike action. Somewhere around 98% I think it was. So much for the 90% against.
Maybe for you SSD is a done deal but for those of us with door to door SSD, we are getting killed. Overburdened, overloaded overworked with unnecessarily late start times and insane admail loads to boot. I’m tired of being tired loaded and treated like a donkey. So no no no, SSD has got to go
SSDis not going, union needs to accept and allow to CMB change over
Also 18% over 3 years maybe but no way 4 years. We’ve been slipping backwards for years. A slap in the face while we risked ourselves and our famalies during covid while everyone else was at home hiding under the bed getting paid for not even working. You have a very short memory
We will fight SSD tooth and nail. You definitely don’t have to deal with it so you think it’s easy to say it’s a done deal, but it’s physically killing the LC. I for one, will not stand down and accept it…especially for a measly 3.5%
Didn’t say accept it for 3.5% that’s forsure. But I’m telling you right now, we’ll never win SSD never! When this goes to arbitration that is what will be imposed on us.
CPC has money to invest in new plants, New green and other vehicles, but it’s always really hard to give employees decent raises…
But also CUPW for the bad workers to keep on being around , which doesn’t help the company at all also… really irritating to see some guys doing crappy jobs out there and not treating the customers properly
100% true
Why can’t Canada Post fire incompetent workers? It’s not fair to us who do our best to make the company successful!
Why did they hire these workers? There is no way in the interview and training process they couldn’t see they were incompetent…Because they wanted to. They want people that have nowhere else to go so they can do exactly this, offer lowball wages. Think about it. It wasn’t like this before, the workforce has change here, because the value and pay has changed. That’s why they are willing to keep things mostly the same for us long time workers, but attack the future employee. But I’ll tell you this us long time workers (LC) will never accept SSD, never
Agreed
Maybe we all should have started with great urgency from day 1 and not waited almost a year to even make a wage offer. Then, perhaps, we wouldn’t be going on strike in a week. But what do I know…
Exactly, in that year how many stations have implemented SSD, now that it’s there they will not take it away thanks union!
Ye play the Victim game CPC get rid of the top heavy management give us a 12.6% for 1 year and 4.6% 2nd year and then re negotiate. CPC had a 2 year contract extension with a very low percent of wage increase which has caused such a huge gap. So while CPC was busy bonusing there management we kept working with low wages. We need what we deserve. Stop spending money in FLEET projects that are always going under.
Time to decide Lc deserves a raise but to let the plant worker to get the same is a Disrespect and not worth it ! I support a different wage scale for lcs and inside workers ! Not the same job not the same elements ! We deserve better ! We deserve unifor or teamster ! Down with cupw ! You lost pt you lost cmb conversion a lil
Bit! But tbh we deserve better for. 100$ a month
Stop wasting or money and stop paying people that don’t work here no more !
It’s hilarious when a relief lc has to work inside as lca and they just work circles around the regular inside workers. These insiders are ridiculously so slow, and act like it’s a hard job. Give them
20 an hour and give the lc’s what they deserve.
True statement
I work inside can never do your job and so sad we make same rate. You deserve higher pay.
Gotta love Canada post. They don’t come to the table for the better part of the year and now there is “an urgency to avoid a labour disruption” as if they’re working hard to avoid it. All part of developing a PR campaign in the court of public opinion with their doctored and misleading financials.
Come on CPC, your offer is a joke, employees deserve better. Stop playing games!
Depending on which province you live in the majority requires a 40% vote of de certification. Lets look into history have we ever seen this happen before? I can’t think of one. Sure CAW was messy with fraud and then merging and changing name to Unifor but this never happens! I think the last statement CP just made makes me sick! Can we all just bargain in good faith I am talking to both sides here. The poor people that live in northern parts of Canada that require CP to deliver medications and other essential life saving objects are praying that both sides can stop acting like children. No other carier goes anywhere north. CP by law is obligated to do so! Maybe if you think about it Canada Post becoming a essential service might be a good idea. And compensated as such
25 year vet LC here…
This is pathetic, but expected from Canada Post. Every round of “negotiations” I’ve been though in my career has gone the same way. Corporation cries poor, demands sweeping concessions and rollbacks, gives bonuses to management, despite the sky supposedly falling, tries to ram though unpopular and dangerous work methods (SSD this time) and then releases a weak Global Offer designed to upset the work force. A labour disruption occurs, CPC leans on it’s buddies in Ottawa to force us back because all of a sudden, we’re an essential service, and then expects the gov’t in power to impose a horrible contract on us through arbitration.
It is very clear from this ridiculous update (we’ve been in serious negotiations for a year, but now that we have a week left, we’re super serious but won’t give, only take) that CPC is preparing to lock down it’s employees.
Go for it. You will find out the public’s and possibly even the government’s perception will be a little different this time.
The public only cares their amazon gets there the next day not who brings it. So they will learn they dont need us when it keeps coming anyways
Good point. I’m just talking about the public’s perception of a Crown Corp locking down it’s workforce because they dare commit the sin of asking for a wage that keeps up with inflation. Everybody else seems to be asking for and getting 30% or more, CUPW isn’t asking for anything even close, even though we’ve been falling behind for years.
When I started, the STARTING wage was $16/hr, which is equivalent to $29.50 in today’s currency. We now top out at $30.36, so yeah, it’s time for a bit of a raise. CPC doesn’t bat an eye when they want to build new plants or buy vehicles. Maybe it’s time to invest in the work force for once.
Give it time. As more packages arrive broken and infested with bugs and roaches from hiring only the cheapest under paid and unprotected labour possible.
You are right, neither the public or the Government will react to this. How does that factor into the Union leverage. Seems like there isn’t much there, while being closed will save a lot of money for the corporation.
Right on! You said it perfectly. Ill add this… You gotta love cpc and how they switch the operation of the company to suit their needs. Today, theyll claim to be a “private” Company, but next week theyll claim to be a “crown” company to meet their needs. Much like CN. CN is suppose to be private, but amazingly became a crown company just so workers could be ordered back to work…. after being locked out. Amazing.
Just remember, it’s not about the narrative that the company is pushing. We are not in competition with other companies, because our role is to deliver the mail. Which no one else does.
Always smart to hitch your wagon to a withering product line. There is no money in mail anymore, hence the current situation. At best, $3 billion a year and counting down.
There is no money in mail anymore , down to only 3 billion a year. I may be old school , but that sure sounds like an awful lot of money to me!
It’s not that it’s a small amount. It used to be bigger and is getting smaller as the country gets bigger. That’s the problem. More points of call with less mail is a no win scenario
I don’t know, I’m getting a ton of flyers, and addressed admail, oh wait, those don’t count towards their volume counts when they give the numbers to the public.
It’s not only about money it’s a public service nobody does. Canada Post is top in its field. They don’t invest in new trucks or plants if they think they won’t be around. They want the workers to pay for this and reward management with bonuses.
CUPW supports the worst employee Canada Post has, lock us out and bleed the union so those who actually work can get paid properly and the slackers can go on welfare!
Definitely Part Of Problem, This Is A Business After All
In order to change unions someone has to take the lead and would need 30% of the membership to vote in favour. Teamsters is the concensus but who would organize this 🤔 probably nobody has the balls.
A comment from someone in management.