The head of the union representing 55,000 Canada Post workers has now come out publicly against a tentative contract agreement reached with the Crown corporation, the latest twist in a labour dispute now stretching into its third year.
In a “Minority Report” posted Tuesday in the union’s spring newsletter, Canadian Union of Postal Workers national president Jan Simpson and four other members of the national executive board urged workers to reject the deal in balloting which runs from April 20 to May 30.
“We are advocating for members to reject the employer’s December 2025 offer and the NEB majority recommendation,” Simpson said.
“These agreements are a huge victory for the employer, the tentative agreements contain major changes, concessions and rollbacks,” Simpson and the four other members added, saying “we unanimously rejected the offer last summer because of the same issues and failure to include the Union’s needs.”
The post also noted that 60 per cent of the 15-member board recommend accepting the deal.
The Minority Report said a ‘No vote’ would result in more negotiations, but admitted a lockout or government intervention were possibilities.
It also noted that a strike vote was taking place at the same time as balloting on the agreement.
Canada Post declined to comment on the Minority Report, which came about two thirds of the way through a special issue of the union’s online ‘Perspective’ publication.
In a “message from Jan Simpson” at the top of the issue, the president seems to praise the deal.
“These agreements do not resolve all our issues, but they protect key rights,” Simpson wrote. “These outcomes reflect the strength and solidarity of postal workers across the country.”
Labour relations experts said it’s unclear whether the move could tip a majority of workers into voting down the deal.
“It might move the needle a bit,” said York University labour studies professor Steven Tufts. “But I don’t know if it will be enough to swing it to a no vote.”
Tufts said the sight of a union president breaking with other senior executives was rare, but not unprecedented.
“There are internal divisions within unions — that’s quite common. But for a president to publicly come out … especially after such a long time, that’s something that’s quite rare,” said Tufts.
CUPW and the Crown corporation announced an “agreement in principle” in late November, then a tentative contract agreement shortly before Christmas, and finalized legal language on sick leave in late January.
In early February, a website urging members to vote against the tentative deal posted several criticisms of the agreement.
The site said at the time that it was run by “a group of postal workers to promote the ‘NO’ campaign,” but didn’t identify any of the organizers by name.
A lengthy voting window — a long wait until voting even begins — gave critics of the deal time to organize, said University of Toronto professor Rafael Gomez.
“This could potentially lead to a rejection,” said Gomez, director of U of T’s Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources. “Absent the delay and absent this news, I think the dynamic probably would have been in favour of a deal.”
Such a lengthy voting window is outside what Gomez calls “best practices” for union democracy.
“If you go to a vote, quick is always better,” Gomez said. “It reflects better the true desires of a voting population at the time the deal was reached.”
Airing such significant internal divisions so publicly is a risky political gambit as well as a rarity, said McMaster University labour studies professor Stephanie Ross.
“This does show a level of division that we are not used to seeing in black and white,” said Ross. “It’s usually something that a union prefers to manage internally, because it’s something that employers and governments can exploit.”
While a ‘No campaign’ isn’t unusual, such senior union leaders being involved is, said Ross.
“It does have greater potential to shape the outcome of the vote,” Ross said.
The tentative agreement is for a five-year contract, and includes wage increases of 6.5 per cent and three per cent in the first two years, compared to six and three per cent in Canada Post’s previous offer in October.
The October offer was a four-year deal with two per cent raises in each of the last two years, while the current tentative agreement is a five-year offer, with raises matching the Consumer Price Index — inflation — in each of the final three years.
Last August, CUPW members rejected the Crown corporation’s ‘final’ offer in balloting ordered by the federal government and overseen by the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
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.
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.
