Canada Post tables final offers to CUPW in effort to avoid strike

Canada Post has presented final offers to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) for its Urban and Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers (RSMC) units, aiming to break a deadlock in negotiations and end potential strike activity.

The offers incorporate key recommendations from the Industrial Inquiry Commission, which earlier this year warned that the Crown corporation faces an “existential crisis,” describing it as “effectively insolvent.”

In addition to maintaining existing job protections and benefits, the new offers include enhanced proposals such as a signing bonus of up to $1,000, cost-of-living allowance triggers at a lower inflation threshold, removal of compulsory overtime and improved short-term disability benefits.

CUPW said the negotiating committees provided Canada Post with “pragmatic and workable concepts” that addressed all the important issues both parties have brought forward. The union said its proposals offer a realistic way forward to bring this dispute to a resolution.

As talks continue, the national overtime ban remains in effect.

Parcel volumes have plummeted 65 per cent compared to this time last year, adding financial strain to the corporation, which recently received up to $1.034 billion in repayable funding from the federal government.

Canada Post says the offers reflect nearly two years of negotiations and are intended to return “certainty and stability” to the postal service and its workers.

Visit here for the complete list of offers made by Canada Post.