Members of the union representing workers at Canada Post have voted to accept the tentative agreements reached with the Crown corporation back in December. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) on Monday released preliminary results from its bargaining units for the past six weeks, with the majority voting in favour of the new contracts. The parties will soon sign the new collective agreements, which will remain in place for five years until Jan. 31, 2029.
Canada Post chief executive Doug Ettinger said the company is pleased that its employees voted to ratify the new agreements, which he said are critically important as Canada Post moves ahead with its transformation to return to financial sustainability.
“Thank you to Canadians and businesses large and small for their patience over the last two years. We will work hard to regain your trust,” Ettinger said in a statement. “With the stability of new agreements in place, we look forward to working with our employees and bargaining agents to rebuild the business, restore confidence in the postal system and better serve the country.”
CUPW national president Jan Simpson said the results follow a gruelling bargaining process, which spanned over two years and included seven weeks of nationwide strikes. Within that period, the federal government used section 107 to pause the strike, and later forced a vote on one of Canada Post’s offers.
Last December, the Crown corporation and CUPW, which represents 55,000 employees, finally reached an agreement just ahead of the holidays.
“Despite these challenges, postal workers made some gains and stopped drastic rollbacks first proposed by Canada Post,” Simpson said in a statement. “These agreements protect key rights including job security and pensions, and secured good wage increases, improved benefits, and pay for all hours worked for rural and suburban mail carriers.”
As part of the new contracts, the parties have agreed to wage increases of 6.5 per cent in year one, including five per cent already received, and a three per cent increase in year two. For years three to five, annual wage increases would match the inflation rate of the Consumer Price Index.
In a statement, Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized companies, said the vote was welcome news, with many small firms still depending on Canada Post as a low-cost way to send marketing material, move money between businesses and send packages to consumers across the country.
“After years of strikes and uncertainty, it is good that Canada Post will have some labour market certainty in the months ahead,” CFIB president Dan Kelly said.
