Canada Post and Union reach agreement

OTTAWA – The longest postal strike in the history of the modern Canadian postal service may soon be over as Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have reached a tentative labour agreement. The two sides had already reached an agreement-in-principle in November.

The agreement, still to be voted on by CUPW members in the Rural and Suburban delivery and Urban delivery bargaining units.

The five-year deal, if approved, will see a 6.5 per cent wage increase in the first year, and a three per cent increase in year two of the deal. Subsequent years of the contract will see wage increases match the annual inflation rate of the Consumer Price Index.

The deal sees no changes to employees’ defined benefit pension for either unit, and increased health benefits for dealing with injuries while on the job, and short-term disability leave. Six non-carry over personal days will be locked into the agreement, with employees having 13 personal days in all.

Job security provisions for the Urban bargaining unit will be maintained, while provisions will be enhanced for suburban and rural workers.

The number of corporate post offices that are protected in the agreement is adjusted to 393, while all rural and suburban employees will be moved to an hourly rate of pay.

Concessions to the post office by the union include a new operating model for supporting weekend delivery of parcels. No specific details of what that model looks like was announced by either party.

CUPW’s executive have recommended members vote to approve the deal, when the ratification vote is held.

“Postal workers have put up an enormous fight over the past two years. But in the face of repeated attacks from a federal government intent on stripping us of our rights to collective bargaining and an employer that wanted to gut our collective agreements, we stood strong,” said CUPW lead negotiators Lana Smidt and François Senneville in a statement from the union. Except for announcing the deal, no comments were made by Canada Post.

CUPW workers were without a contract since the end of 2023. Post office services were disrupted in two significant shutdowns during negotiations, including a 32-day shutdown that started in November 2024. Services were disrupted again for 15-days beginning in late September 2025. Following the last shutdown, there were rotating strikes by members for nearly two months before the agreement-in-principle was agreed to in November.

Canada Post has been losing money since 2018 and the federal government agreed last fall to allow some reforms to cut costs including ending home delivery for the one-quarter of the country that still had the service.

Canada Post reported pre-tax loss for the third-quarter of 2025 of $541 million, a 63 per cent increase from the same period in 2024. The Crown corporation lost $989 million in the first nine-months of 2025. The company has a cumulative loss of more than $5.5 billion since 2018 and has twice received significant funding from the federal government to offset the losses. The tentative agreement, if approved, will expire on January 31, 2029.