Canada Post will meet with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) on Friday to hear why it rejected the crown corporation’s “best and final” contract offer on Aug. 1 even though the

union on Wednesday said “Canada Post has failed to acknowledge that its offers just didn’t cut it.”

The two sides will meet to “resume good faith discussions with the assistance of federal mediators,” Canada Post said in a release on Wednesday. “While negotiations remain unresolved, there remains an urgent need to modernize Canada Post and protect this vital national service for Canadians.”

Jan Simpson, national president of CUPW, said the union has been urging Canada Post to come back to the bargaining table since early last week.

“While Canada Post says it needs to act with urgency, the corporation seems to forget that it was its side that delayed negotiations for two months by requesting a forced vote, and this after the government paused our

legal strike for six months,” she said in a release on Wednesday. CUPW said its roughly 55,000 members overwhelmingly voted against Canada Post’s latest proposal, which included about a

13 per cent wage increase over four years and plans to add part-time positions. Postal workers walked off the job on Nov. 15, 2024, in a strike that lasted about a month before ending on Dec. 17. The union had sought wage increases of 24 per cent over four years along with expanded benefits such as fertility and gender-affirming care coverage, improved medical leave and paid rest and meal breaks.

Canada Post responded to the demands by offering an 11.5 per cent wage increase over four years in October 2024, as well as protected defined pensions for current employees and wage protection against inflation. But the offer was rejected.

With the two parties at a standstill, then labour minister Steven MacKinnon referred the dispute to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, which ordered employees back to work on Dec. 17, 2024, extended the existing contract until May 22, 2025, and implemented a five per cent retroactive wage increase.

Canada Post has suffered severe financial losses as a result of the strike, with the mail carrier reportedly losing more than $100 million in the first quarter of 2025 alone. Moreover, the company has also suffered a hit to its once sizable market share.

Canada Post’s market share for the parcel delivery market has dropped to 26.7 per cent in 2024 from 62 per cent in 2019. The service delays due to the strike proved to be an opportunity for other industry giants such as United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. as well as relative newcomers like UniExpress Inc. and Stallion Express Inc. to grab customers.

CUPW issued a strike notice for both urban and Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers (RSMC) on May 19, 2025. It doubled down on this by announcing a nationwide overtime ban for all employees.

Canada Post rejected binding arbitration and asked Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu to order a vote on its final offer. Between July 21 and Aug. 1, about 53,000 members cast ballots, with 68 per cent to 69 per cent of urban and rural carriers voting against the deal.

The union said its members are tired of negotiations that “go nowhere” and want to find a resolution suitable for the workers.

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“The job now is to get ratifiable collective agreements and the members have made clear that those do not look like what the employer is selling,” Simpson said.