Offers maintain key items for employees while including proposals to align the company with the modern needs of Canadians and the country
OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 3, 2025 /CNW/ – Canada Post today presented new global offers to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). The offers enable the company’s modernization while balancing its financial realities with fairness and respect for employees.
The Government of Canada recently announced important measures to help renew and restore the postal service so that it aligns with the needs of the country, returns to financial sustainability, and avoids taxpayer-funded government bailouts. The offers for the Urban and RSMC (Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers) bargaining units contain proposals to help support this transformation while minimizing the impact on Canada Post’s people.
Canada Post’s critical financial situation has also worsened in the last year as CUPW’s strike action, including two national strikes, have shut down the postal system for Canadians and driven more customers to competitors.
Protecting important items for employees
The offers maintain key provisions for employees that were in the Corporation’s best and final offers presented on May 28, 2025. These proposals include compounded wage increases of 13.59% over four years, while protecting what employees value most:
- Industry-leading defined benefit pension
- Health benefits and post-retirement benefits
- Vacation (up to seven weeks) and pre-retirement leave
- Cost of living allowance that protects against the effects of unforeseen inflation
Due to the company’s deteriorating financial situation, a signing bonus for employees is no longer on the table. 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.
Proposals to help build the Parcels business
The offers continue to propose important changes to Canada Post’s delivery model to help build a more flexible and affordable postal service – one that better serves Canadians in today’s economy. To support delivery flexibility, Canada Post continues to propose new part-time positions that come with health and pension benefits and scheduled and guaranteed hours.
Transforming the company’s operations
On September 25, 2025, the Government of Canada directed Canada Post to:
- Introduce flexibility in delivery standards and frequency
- Expand the use of community mailboxes
- Develop a plan to protect service in rural, remote, northern and Indigenous communities after the lifting of the rural moratorium
Workforce adjustment process for the Urban bargaining unit
The Corporation is proposing a fair and balanced approach to managing the size of its workforce in the Urban bargaining unit. With these changes, Canada Post will continue to provide good jobs and need a strong workforce – but one that is smaller in size and more flexible in the future. The best job security comes from organizations that are strong and self-sustainable.
As a temporary measure for the duration of its transformation, the Corporation cannot maintain its existing “job security for life” provisions for employees in the Urban unit, which require the company to continue to provide full pay to an employee until they decide to leave, even if there is no work for them. Instead, the company proposes an exception process limited to its implementation of the government directions, that also aligns with the approach taken by the federal government, which will treat employees with respect through this transition.
To implement these measures, Canada Post is proposing a transparent workforce adjustment process that includes six months’ notice to CUPW, a period of consultation with the union, voluntary departure incentives of up to 78 weeks’ base pay, and seniority-based bidding and bumping. Layoffs will only be used if other measures, including attrition and departure incentives, prove insufficient to achieve reduction targets. With thousands of employees set to retire over the next few years, reducing the size of the workforce through attrition will always be the first choice, but it cannot be the only option through this transformation.
Laid-off employees would retain recall rights for two years, continue to accrue seniority, and may access the Corporation’s Supplementary Employment Benefits Plan, which provides a salary top-up for up to two years. If not recalled within the two-year timeframe, impacted employees would receive severance pay (plus pay in lieu of notice) in accordance with the Canada Labour Code.
Aligning the post office network with the needs of Canadians
With the lifting of the rural moratorium, Canada Post is also proposing to remove the provision in the Urban collective agreement that leaves 493 corporate post offices, largely in urban and suburban areas, as off-limits. This provision in the current collective agreement acts as another moratorium on making necessary changes to the company’s post office network, which is not sustainable.
Removing this provision would provide greater flexibility to align the Corporation’s post office network with the modern needs of Canadians, particularly in these overserved communities. It also enables the company to better focus limited resources on protecting services in rural, remote, northern and Indigenous communities.
Canada Post remains committed to reaching negotiated agreements with CUPW that are affordable, support its people and help build a sustainable future for the company.
SOURCE Canada Post
