Canada Post has rejected a request by the union for binding arbitration, with the Crown corporation saying it would be “long and complicated.”
The Crown corporation said in a statement Sunday that it was seeking a “timely and fair resolution” that would ensure employees would “have a voice” through a vote.
“The union’s proposal to send the matter to binding arbitration would do the opposite,” Canada Post said, adding it could take more than a year.
In a response to the rejection, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) expressed its disappointment.
“This refusal constitutes yet another demonstration that CPC (Canada Post Corporation) is not interested in a reasonable outcome to this round of negotiation,” the union wrote in a news release. “A forced vote may fail to end the labour conflict and risks further division, prolonging uncertainty for all parties.”
The union had made the request Saturday after the Crown corporation asked Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu a day earlier to direct the postal workers’ union to hold a vote on the “final offers” the national mail carrier presented last week.
In a statement Friday, Canada Post said it was not possible to reach tentative agreements through negotiations “given the level of impasse and CUPW’s negotiating position.”
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Such a vote would effectively adopt the final offers presented by Canada Post as a new collective agreement, in a method similar to a membership-wide ratification of a tentative deal.
CUPW said Saturday that a “government-imposed vote” would not bring about an end to the labour dispute, adding it would be “another unwarranted government intervention.”
Officials with the union had met with Hajdu and Secretary of State for Labour John Zerucelli on Friday.
In a post on X on Friday evening, Hajdu said she urged both parties to work together to find an agreement that “maintains a strong and lasting postal service,” adding that her office was reviewing the order by Canada Post for a vote and federal mediators would remain available to continue work at the negotiating table.
But the union said on Saturday that arbitration was the best path forward.
“At this time and in these circumstances, only arbitration can end the ongoing labour dispute fairly and expeditiously,” the union said.
The union and Canada Post have been trying to negotiate a new contract for more than 18 months. There was also a month-long strike last year.
That strike was ended when then-labour minister Steven MacKinnon asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order workers back on the job if it agreed with his determination that there was an impasse in negotiations.
MacKinnon had also ordered an industrial inquiry commission to review the structural issues of the dispute, which were laid out in a report released last month that made several recommendations, including to phase out door-to-door letter delivery for individual addresses.
Canada Post is “facing an existential crisis: It is effectively insolvent, or bankrupt,” the report from the Industrial Inquiry Commission said.
The Crown corporation earlier this week posted a nearly $1.3-billion operating loss for 2024, while revenues fell by $800 million, or 12.2 per cent, compared with 2023.
Last year’s strike contributed to a “net negative impact of $208 million” towards Canada Post’s $841-million loss before tax, the latest annual report said.
When the corporation presented its offers on Wednesday, it said in a news release that the final offers were “designed to move negotiations forward and return certainty and stability to customers, Canada Post’s employees, and all Canadians.”
— with files from Global News’ Sean Boynton and Uday Rana
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