Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have finalized outstanding language on short-term disability and personal days in tentative five-year agreements running to Jan. 31, 2029, ending a key step toward ratification votes for 55,000 members after more than two years of labour strife.
The last wording is now settled
Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers said on Jan. 29 that they had finished the outstanding contractual language in the tentative agreements first reached in December 2025. The remaining clauses dealt with the short-term disability program and personal days, two items the union confirmed its negotiating committees had now completed.
The step matters because agreements in principle, announced in November 2025, do not become votable contracts until the full text is settled. With the language incorporated, the union said members would be able to see a full draft of their collective agreement before voting. Its national executive board was expected to set voting dates, and the board recommended that members vote in favour.
Both sides also confirmed that there would be no strike or lockout activity while ratification takes place. That commitment removed, for the voting period at least, the risk of another sudden shutdown of the kind Canadians experienced in the fall of 2025.
What is in the tentative agreements
Separate agreements cover the Urban Postal Operations unit and the Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers unit. Both would run for five years and expire on Jan. 31, 2029.
Canada Post’s published highlights list a wage increase of 6.5 per cent in the first year, including five per cent already received, followed by three per cent in the second year. In each of the third, fourth and fifth years, wages would rise at the annual rate of inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index.
The defined benefit pension would not change. The agreements include an enhanced health benefits plan and better income replacement for injury-on-duty leave and for leave under the short-term disability program — the clause finalized in January. Six non-carry-over personal days would be locked into the agreement, for a total of 13 personal days.
Operationally, the largest change is a new model to support weekend parcel delivery for both units. Job security provisions would be maintained for Urban employees and enhanced for Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers, who would also move to an hourly rate of pay. The number of corporate post offices protected in the Urban agreement would be adjusted to 393.
More than two years of dispute behind the vote
The ratification process follows a long and disruptive round of bargaining over wages and the future structure of the postal service. Postal workers took strike action on multiple occasions during the dispute. A nationwide strike in the fall of 2024 continued into early 2025, and in the fall of 2025 a full strike quickly gave way to rotating strikes before the November agreement in principle suspended strike and lockout activity.
For businesses and households, the practical question throughout was certainty. Canada Post told business customers it recognized the stability they needed and promised further updates as the process moved forward. The union, for its part, stressed that each agreement must be approved by a majority of members in its own bargaining unit — approval in one unit does not carry the other.
What happened next
The January finalization did lead to ratification. Voting was held over six weeks in the spring, and on June 1, 2026, CUPW reported that the Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers unit had voted 85.9 per cent in favour and the Urban Postal Operations unit 89 per cent in favour.
Canada Post said the parties would then sign the new collective agreements, which remain in place until Jan. 31, 2029. Its president said the result gave the corporation stability to rebuild the business and restore confidence in the postal system, while acknowledging that the process had been challenging for employees, businesses and the public alike.
