The union that represents around 55,000 Canada Post workers has asked its members across the country to stop working overtime. The union says its leaders are still looking over the latest contract offers from Canada Post.
On Thursday night, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) told its members not to work more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week.
Canada Post responded by saying there are no strikes or full shutdowns yet, and mail service will continue. However, it warned that delays might happen.
This comes as the union could legally go on strike starting Friday. The two sides met Thursday evening but did not reach an agreement.
Canada Post spokesperson Lisa Liu said the meeting was short, lasting under 30 minutes, and the union only brought up a few issues. She said this was not enough to show any real progress. Liu also said Canada Post wants the union to respond quickly to the offers made earlier in the week.
The union said the offers are not good enough. Workers are asking for a 19% pay raise after dealing with high inflation for years.
One of the biggest disagreements is about part-time weekend work.
Right now, Canada Post must pay extra for weekend shifts, which don’t happen often. The company wants to hire more part-time workers for weekends and busy times instead of paying overtime to full-time employees. The union says this would increase part-time jobs in cities by 20% and could force some workers to work up to 30 hours per week without full-time benefits.
A government report last week suggested major changes to help Canada Post deal with its financial problems. It called the company basically “bankrupt” and recommended closing rural post offices, adding more community mailboxes, and focusing more on delivering packages.
The 162-page report by arbitrator William Kaplan said Canada Post is in a serious crisis. He suggested ending daily door-to-door mail delivery for homes but keeping it for businesses. He also suggested paying part-time workers fairly and avoiding “gig jobs” that don’t offer stable pay or benefits.
On Wednesday, Canada Post said no to the union’s idea of a two-week break to review the offers. Because of this, the union chose to move forward with the overtime ban, saying it would cause less trouble for the public and workers than a full strike.
The union also warned that more actions might happen soon.
If a strike happens, it would stop the delivery of almost 8.5 million letters and 1.1 million packages each weekday. That would hurt the company’s finances even more.
Canada Post already lost $803 million in the first nine months of 2024. Since 2018, it has lost $3.8 billion. In January, it received a $1.03 billion loan from the federal government.
This would also be the second time in six months that Canada Post workers stopped working. A strike last year affected millions of people and businesses and caused an estimated $1.6 billion in losses for small companies, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
