Over the weekend, there was a glimmer of hope that the Canada Post strike could soon come to an end, but that hope was dashed late Monday afternoon as the two sides dug in, with union and company officials exchanging accusations of bad-faith bargaining.
In a memo to its 55,000 members, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers blasted the company’s previous offers and said it met face-to-face earlier in the day with company negotiators and issued a broad new contract proposal.
“We have waited far too long for Canada Post to bargain in good faith. True progress requires meaningful engagement, not surface-level proposals, or new demands that derail progress,” the memo said.
“None of us want to be on the picket line, but we cannot continue with management steamrolling workers with random ideas they have to change work rules and impact our safety. We call on Canada Post to seriously consider our proposals.”
In a press release issued shortly after the union broadside, the Crown corporation responded in kind, saying that the union’s latest proposal included “major steps backwards.”
“Canada Post has received the latest offers from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and is extremely disappointed that their intent appears to be to widen the gap in negotiations, rather than close it,” the company said, adding that the strike is “accelerating” Canada Post’s financial woes. The company said it will suffer its seventh straight annual loss in 2024.
The union’s latest proposal includes a total of 19 per cent in wage hikes over four years and a guaranteed minimum 20 hours per week of work for part-time employees.
The two sides also traded shots through the media over the weekend, with union negotiator Jim Gallant saying CUPW was “extremely disappointed” at the latest proposal, and the company chiding the union for speaking publicly rather than through the mediator.
The entrenched positions could be a sign, labour relations experts say, of internal divisions within the union on how to respond to the company’s attempts to restructure its operations.
鈥淚 think what we鈥檙e seeing now is that there are probably internal negotiations in the union to determine how to move forward,” said Stephanie Ross, a labour studies professor at McMaster University.
The series of back-and-forth proposals began last Sunday, after the union and Canada Post received a stern, closed-door talking-to from federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon.
Still, no formal mediation had taken place since Nov. 28, when the mediator called off talks, saying the two sides were too far apart to reach a deal. The strike began Nov. 15.
Canada Post has previously said it offered wage increases totalling 11.5 per cent over four years and additional paid leave, while protecting the defined benefit pension and job security provisions.
The union had called for a cumulative wage hike of 24 per cent over four years, as well as suggesting that Canada Post expand into banking.
The company is seeking to provide weekend deliveries and have a greater share of its staff working part-time. The union wants full-time workers to do weekend delivery, while the company wants to hire part-time staff to do the job.
That kind of dramatic restructuring makes it far harder to see a clear path to a settlement than if it were only money dividing the two sides, Ross said.
“It鈥檚 hard to split the difference when you鈥檙e talking about expanding the presence of casual and part-time labour.”
Progress will be tougher to find at this point, agreed Rafael Gomez, director of the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not in a position where either party benefits from giving in. It鈥檚 a lose-lose,” said Gomez. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e negotiating about how much less you lose, it鈥檚 much more fraught than splitting up the pie.鈥
The longer the strike goes on, the less generous Canada Post’s contract offers could become, Gomez predicted.
“They were already losing money before the strike, and now they’re losing revenue during the busiest time of the year for parcel deliveries,” said Gomez. “It wouldn’t surprise me if Canada Post said, ‘We can’t afford to give you what we could have a month ago.’ ”
The federal government has thus far said it won’t invoke Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code and apply to the Canadian Industrial Relations Board for binding arbitration to end the strike, but that prospect could push both sides back to the table, said Larry Savage, a labour relations professor at Brock University.
“Unions 鈥 much prefer negotiated settlements over imposed agreements. And while some business organizations have been calling for government intervention, Canada Post has not (called for intervention) 鈥 likely because binding arbitration would put management鈥檚 key restructuring demands at risk,” said Savage.
The union already escalated one dispute to the industrial relations board, when it听filed an unfair labour practice complaint against Canada Post over its decision to lay off some striking workers. The union has criticized the layoffs as an attempt at intimidation.
The layoffs may well have backfired, said Ross.
鈥淚 think the layoff move wasn鈥檛 very wise. It didn鈥檛 have the intended effect, which was to introduce fear, and put more pressure on CUPW members,” said Ross.
The latest dispute is devastating news for the country’s small businesses, particularly retailers trying to ship orders to customers, said Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
“Merchants have already lost Christmas,” said Kelly. “I (wouldn鈥檛) blame Canada Post for making this (offer) less generous. They know that demand will be permanently lower as a result of the strike.”
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