Not everyone, it appears, is happy with the new tentative contract agreement at Canada Post.
Whether an anonymous web campaign is a significant groundswell of opposition or just a handful of disgruntled union members, however, is an open question.
Organizers urging postal workers to ‘vote no’ on a tentative agreement with Canada Post say the deal contains significant rollbacks, is worse than contract rejected in forced balloting last year, and that only a “slim majority” of the union’s executive board voted in favour of accepting it.
A website called ‘CUPW Vote No’ says it’s run by “a group of postal workers to promote the ‘NO’ campaign,” but doesn’t identify any of the organizers by name.
The site added that it’s not affiliated with any political organization or group organizing inside the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
While the official wording of the deal finalized last week hasn’t been publicly released yet, the website says it’s simply not good enough.
“These agreements address none of our major demands for either bargaining unit, and contain many of the same rollbacks members rejected during the July 2025 forced vote — the same forced vote the National Executive Board unanimously recommended we vote no to,” the website said.
Some of the specific criticisms levied by the group include that the final three years of the deal include wage hikes which match — but don’t exceed — inflation, the creation of three new part-time job categories, and lowering the number of post offices protected from closure to 393, down from the current 493.
“With the lifting of the moratorium on rural post office closures by the government and Canada Post’s clear messaging that they need to close these offices, this change doesn’t just allow the closure of these offices, it guarantees it,” the website says.
In an emailed statement, CUPW didn’t comment on any specific claim on the website, but stressed the union’s democratic credentials.
“The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is a democratic organization,” CUPW said. “Members can vote yes or no — but we encourage everyone to make their voices heard during the ratification votes which we will be scheduling soon.”
Canada Post declined to comment on the website or its claims. The website’s organizers didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to a WHOIS search online, the website was registered almost a year ago — Feb. 25, 2025, but was updated most recently Jan. 22 of this year.
York University labour studies professor Steven Tufts said the anonymity could be a sign that the site organizers don’t have a significant number of members behind them.
“It doesn’t take much for a few people to get a domain name and set up a basic website,” said Tufts. “I think it’s probably quite small.”
If the anonymity were dropped and key members of union leadership were to agree with the site’s claims, that would lend its organizers more weight, Tufts said.
“Until the organizers go public and there are big names involved,” said Tufts, “I really don’t see this as a sign of opposition to the deal.”
Last July union members voted down Canada Post’s ‘final offer’ with just under 70 per cent of voters rejecting it in balloting ordered by the federal government and monitored by the Canada Industrial Relations Board. But that final offer came before Ottawa changed the dynamic.
In late September, the federal government gave the green light for a broad restructuring of Canada Post, including elimination of home delivery, increased use of community mailboxes and shuttering of some rural post offices.
Joël Lightbound, federal minister of Government Transformation, Public Services and Procurement, said the restructuring was necessary to fight an “existential crisis” faced by the financially-struggling Crown corporation.
Many of the changes approved by the minister were recommended in a May report by the Industrial Inquiry Commission led by veteran mediator William Kaplan.
Within hours of Lightbound’s September announcement, CUPW launched its second national strike in a year. That strike was subsequently downgraded to a series of rotating regional strikes.
In October, the Crown corporation presented another offer, a four-year deal with a six per cent raise in year one, three per cent in year two, and two per cent raises in each of the last two years.
The current tentative agreement is a five-year offer, with raises of 6.5 per cent and three per cent in years one and two, and raises matching the Consumer Price Index — inflation — in each of the final three years.
On Nov. 7, the Crown corporation gave the federal government its implementation plan for the restructuring, but said it wouldn’t make details public until the plan is finalized and approved.
The union has said the restructuring would lead to service cutbacks and job losses.
Canada Post CEO Doug Ettinger reiterated before a parliamentary committee in December that the Crown corporation is expecting 16,000 employees to retire or take voluntary departure by 2030, with another 14,000 leaving by 2035.
