Tougher work conditions for postal workers at the heart of labour dispute, union says

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says the changing roles of its workers, which have led to longer hours and tougher work conditions as the mail service tries to compete with delivery giants such as Amazon.com Inc., is the crux of the continuing labour dispute with Canada Post.

“Canada Post wants to gig-ify the post office. They want to contract out our work and create a two-tier workplace where some workers have much harder jobs than others,” Jan Simpson, president of CUPW, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.

On Tuesday, CUPW, which represents more than 60,000 Canada Post delivery workers in rural and urban areas across the country, issued a 72-hour strike notice, putting workers in a legal strike position as of Friday. It could mean nationwide disruption to postal services in the month leading up to the busy holiday season.

The two sides remain far apart on a multitude of issues: wages, improved benefits for permanent and temporary workers and better sick leave. But CUPW’s detailed demands to Canada Post reflect an attempt to maintain the working conditions of its members, which the union says have eroded in tandem with the expansion of e-commerce and same-day delivery companies such as Amazon.

Specifically, the union is seeking the elimination of the “separate sort from delivery” (SSD) system that creates dual roles for postal workers – delivery jobs and sorting jobs. A sorter could spend a full day indoors sorting and preparing mail for a letter carrier who then spends a full day outdoors delivering that mail.

It is a model used by companies such as Amazon and Walmart Inc. to increase the efficiency of their distribution systems: A worker in a warehouse sorts orders into boxes, and the delivery of the item is usually outsourced to a third-party delivery courier.

Canada Post letter carriers used to sort mail as well, which would ensure that they weren’t on the road or in the cold for their whole shift. The union argues the SSD system creates health and safety issues for the letter carrier, who spends a full day outside on the job.

The two sides also remain far apart on wages. CUPW is asking for a compounded wage increase of 24 per cent spread over four years, while Canada Post has proposed a 11.5-per-cent wage increase over four years. The Crown corporation also wants to negotiate a “more flexible and affordable delivery model” that would include parcel delivery seven days a week, a proposal CUPW opposes.

Canada Post has been losing money since 2018 due to declining revenue from the delivery of letter mail and parcels. In the first half of 2024 alone, the Crown corporation posted losses of $490-million.

The corporation said since CUPW announced its strike mandate on Oct. 25, Canada Post’s parcel volumes declined by 28 per cent compared to the same week of the previous year. Canada Post also said its current offer to the union ensures worker pensions, job security provisions and benefits are protected.

Ms. Simpson says Canada Post lost its competitive advantage when it eliminated door-to-door delivery to many households across the country, an initiative spearheaded by then Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper in 2014. The Liberals paused the project in 2018 but did not fully restore direct mail delivery to many parts of the country. CUPW has been pushing for Canada Post to innovate as a company by setting up postal banks – the provision of basic banking services at local post offices. It is still a point of contention in this round of bargaining.

Adam King, an associate professor of labour studies at the University of Manitoba, says the likelihood of a postal worker strike is high given the number of issues at the bargaining table. In total, 95 per cent of CUPW members voted in favour of a strike.

“This is a workplace that is being indirectly squeezed by Big Tech. You have private competitors with a large non-unionized work force and very low labour costs. Postal workers can see that, and they want to get as much as they can in this round of bargaining,” he said.

CUPW has a long history of being the most militant union in the federal public sector, notes Stephanie Ross, a professor of labour studies at McMaster University. “They are the kind of union that connects the economic interests of their members with a broader social vision. They have repeatedly gone on strike, and repeatedly been slapped with back-to-work legislation.”

Canada Post workers were forced back to work by the Liberal government in the last round of bargaining in 2018. This time around, it might be more politically contentious for the Liberals to use back-to-work legislation, said Larry Savage, a labour relations expert at Brock University.

“Public support for unions has grown, and the Trudeau Liberals find themselves in a more precarious position without the formal support of the NDP,” he said. “In order to avoid the political risk of tabling legislation, the government may try to pre-empt a strike by shifting the dispute to the labour board for resolution.”

Requesting that the Canada Industrial Relations Board intervene in labour disputes by forcing arbitration between both sides has become a go-to move for the Liberals of late. In August, the CIRB ordered thousands of rail workers to return to their jobs. On Tuesday, Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon ordered the CIRB to mandate the resumption of port operations in Montreal and Vancouver amid stalled labour negotiations.

On an impending Canada Post strike, Minister MacKinnon said he wants the two sides to keep talking. “We are hoping to achieve a deal at the table,” he told reporters Tuesday at a news conference on Parliament Hill.