THUNDER BAY — Canada’s jobs and families minister says she’ll use her legislative powers to force Canada Post workers to vote on company’s last offers.
“Today, I have decided to exercise my authority under section 108.1(1) of the Canada Labour Code to direct a vote on the final offers that Canada Post submitted to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers on May 28, 2025,” Patty Hajdu — also the MP for Thunder Bay-Superior North — posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday.
“After 18 months of negotiation, over 200 meetings between the parties, 33 days of strike and lockout in the fall and ongoing strain placed on Canada’s small businesses and communities, it is in the public interest that the membership of CUPW has the opportunity to vote on Canada Post’s last offers.”
She added that she and John Zerucelli, the secretary of state for labour, have spoken to both parties, adding that the Canada Industrial Relations Board will be directed to conduct the vote "as soon as possible."
Hajdu had previously requested arbitration between the two sides but the Crown corporation and the union couldn’t agree on terms of reference under which that arbitration would happen. Canada Post had rejected arbitration previously, saying it would be “long and complicated,” and “accelerate the company’s significant financial challenges,” according to an update posted to its website on June 1.
That Canada Post statement said it requested Hajdu order an employee vote.
“Canada Post is not trying to resolve this impasse, it is trying to bypass it,” the union stated in its own update on June 10. “Canada Post doesn’t want negotiated agreements. What it wants is to impose its own terms, through government processes, effectively gutting and rewriting our collective agreements by themselves.”
Canada Post received strike notices on May 19 from the union bargaining units representing urban, rural and suburban mail carriers. Carriers haven’t walked off the job, but are refusing to work overtime.
The union did go on strike last November before the Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered them back to work in advance of the Christmas holiday season.
According to Leo Favreau, president of CUPW Local 620, the union is seeking increases in job security, health and safety and want a livable wage.
The Industrial Inquiry Commission has stated that “Canada Post is facing an existential crisis — it is effectively insolvent, or bankrupt.”
“Without thoughtful, measured, staged, but immediate changes, its fiscal situation will continue to deteriorate.”
