As Canada Post talks continue, business uncertainty grows as holidays near

As Canada Post and the postal workers’ union continue negotiating toward a new contract, the ongoing uncertainty has forced nervous small businesses to look elsewhere for their shipping needs amid the busy holiday shopping season.

The national mail carrier and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) announced last month they had reached “agreements in principle” that would set the stage for a tentative deal on new collective agreements.

Since then, the two sides have been reviewing contractual language that will form the new agreements for urban and rural postal workers. Neither the company nor the union will say how long that may take.

“We continue to review the contractual language in order to finalize tentative agreements, we have no further details to share,” a Canada Post spokesperson told Global News in an email Tuesday.

“CUPW negotiators for both bargaining units are now carefully reviewing contract language,” the union said in a statement that acknowledged the latest round of bargaining — which has dragged on for over two years in total — “has been difficult.”

The union also emphasized that strike activity has been “suspended” amid the negotiations, with Canada Post also agreeing not to lock out workers.

However, CUPW has previously said it retains the right to go back on strike at any time until tentative agreements are formally ratified by union members.

That has small businesses feeling nervous, with some seeking out competitors to ensure stability, the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB) says.

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“If we don’t see an agreement reached soon, and if all that uncertainty does not stop, we could see more businesses going elsewhere and not using Canada Post,” Jasmin Guénette, vice-president of national affairs at the CFIB, said in an interview.

“We need to avoid a strike at all costs for the coming holiday season.”

The CFIB has said last year’s postal strike, which coincided with the December holidays, cost small businesses more than $1 billion. Canada Post itself says the strike contributed “a net negative impact of $208 million” toward its $841-million loss in 2024.

The Crown corporation says its financial struggles have only gotten worse since then, with the company losing more than $1 billion so far this year.

Businesses were also impacted by a brief national strike and then rotating strikes earlier this fall, as well as a ban on delivering flyers and other unaddressed mail before those walkouts.

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Guénette said business owners have switched to private shipping companies like UPS and FedEx — as well as Canada Post-majority-owned Purolator — despite being more expensive, noting the “trade-off” of certainty and quality amid Canada Post’s financial and labour instability.

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“If the corporation wishes to stabilize the operation, go back to being financially viable, an agreement must be reached soon so that business is back as normal as possible, and businesses can have confidence again in Canada Post,” he said.

“Since especially last Christmas, that confidence level towards Canada Post has taken a hit, to say the least.”

He added, however, that “it’s unclear” if small businesses will return to Canada Post once new contracts are ratified, noting the company still needs to prove it can right-size its operations and compete with those same private companies.

The federal government has received an action plan from Canada Post on how it intends to adopt reforms announced by Ottawa in September, including reducing letter delivery standards, closing some post offices and moving fully to community mailbox services across the country.

Canada Post has already laid off some of its corporate staff as directed by the government and has said it will reduce its postal delivery workforce as well, though the company has said that will mostly be achieved through attrition.

CUPW launched its national strike in protest of the government reforms, but failed to get them rolled back or withdrawn.

Until tentative agreements are announced and ratified, Guénette said it was important to ensure Canada Post retains full services for businesses while negotiations continue.

He added the longer those talks drag on, “It would send the message that maybe things are not necessarily moving as fast as they should.”

“Obviously we hope that the negotiations between the union and the employer will go well, that sooner than later a new collective bargaining agreement will be signed, and all this uncertainty will be gone,” he said.