Pre-Election Report Card: Federal Parties on Postal Workers

Federal Parties on Postal Issues

Produced by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, March 7, 2025.

Sources and More detail on Party Positions and Actions

 

2018 Back-to-work legislation C-89 that outlawed our rotating strikes:

• Tabled by Liberal majority government; most Liberal MPs voted for it.
• Conservatives: for
• NDP: against
• Bloc Quebecois: against

 

The recently expired Urban and RSMC Collective Agreements were imposed by an arbitrator in 2020 following the process set out by the 2018 legislation.

 

Liberal Party

Note: The Liberal grades regarding the expansion of postal services, pensions and rural post offices may change, depending upon what their government does with the results from the Section 108 Industrial Inquiry Commission under the Canada Labour Code – if it is still in power.

Worker Rights

• 2024: Minister of Labour used Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code several times to force an end to legal strikes, including postal workers in December.
• 2024: Introduced C-58, anti-scab legislation for federally regulated workplaces.^[1]
• Initiated task force review after Vancouver ports strike after employers said more supply chain services should be designated essential.
• 2022: Added paid sick leave and paid personal days to Canada Labour Code for federally regulated workers.
• Agreed to Supply and Confidence arrangement with NDP, which requires Liberals to act on Pharmacare, dental care, affordable housing, the climate crisis, paid sick days for federally regulated workers, anti-scab legislation, reconciliation, electoral reform, and more[2]
• 2018: Legislated CUPW members back to work, ending a rotating strike.
• 2015: Repealed C-377 and C-525, two bills that restricted union rights that were passed by previous Conservative government.

Expanded Postal Services / Cuts

• 2018: On House Motion M-166 – Irene Mathyssen’s House of Commons motion on postal banking – 138 votes against, 11 for.
• 2016: stopped Community Mailbox conversions but did not reverse cuts.

Pensions

• 2016: Trudeau Liberal Government expanded the Canada Pension Plan, which was a long-standing demand of Labour.
• 2016: Former Finance Minister Bill Morneau introduced Bill C-27 that would have made it easier to convert Defined Benefit Pension plans to Target Benefit plans, putting pension benefits at risk for more workers. The Bill didn’t move forward after the first reading.

Rural Post Offices

• No published policy available.
• According to NDP Postal Critics, 120 communities in rural Canada have lost their post offices since the Liberals were elected in 2015.[3]

Postal Deregulation 

• The Liberal government is seeking to remove the federal exception for Canada Post’s exclusive privilege from the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) but has suggested they do not want to touch the Canada Post Act. Given there is a dispute mechanism in the CFTA, questions remain about the ability for competitors to sue the Federal government and what its impact will be once this exception is removed.

Climate

• Introduced Canada’s first national climate plan, a price on carbon, and moved forward on banning single-use plastics.
• Offered rebates for electric vehicle purchases and home retrofits for energy efficiency.
• Introduced the Sustainable Jobs Act to help workers whose jobs are lost or transformed in the transition.

 

 

Conservative Party

Worker Rights

• 2023 Policy declaration “supports right to work legislation to allow optional union membership,” a policy that has severely weakened unions and working standards in many U.S. states. These laws have forced unions to represent everyone, including freeloaders who refuse to pay union dues.
• Also declares that “federal Public Service Unions and unions in federally-regulated industries must allow members to opt out of the portion of their dues that are allocated to political and media work,” which goes against the Rand decision that stated that workers who benefit from the union, whether they wish to be members or not, must pay union dues.[4]
• Unanimously supported back-to-work legislation in 2018.
• Legislated CUPW members back to work in 2011.
• Conservative federal government in 2011 introduced and passed Bill C-377, which requires onerous and redundant financial reporting for unions.
• Conservative federal government introduced and passed Bill C-525 to make it harder to certify unions and easier to decertify.

Expanded Postal Services / Cuts

• No published position available, though several Conservative Rural MPs have endorsed Postal Banking in the past.
• 2018: 81 of 81 Conservative votes were against M-166 on postal banking.

Pensions

• Voted 87 of 87 against expanding the CPP.
• 2023 Policy Declaration supports bringing public-sector pensions into a shared-risk model, which would make benefits contingent on stock market performance[5]

Rural Post Offices

• No published policy available.

Postal Deregulation

• 2023 Policy declaration supports the privatization of public services and crown corporations where they compete with private businesses (i.e., parcel services.)[6]
• In 2010, a federal Conservative Government removed Canada Post’s exclusive privilege to handle international letters. The Harper Government also commissioned studies about selling off postal services.

Climate

• Opposes carbon tax, a cornerstone of current federal Climate Action Plan.
• Environmental policies mainly focused on reducing pollution, rather than climate change. Principles include clean air, reducing pollution, energy security, a “gradual transition to a lower carbon-use future,” carbon capture, and protecting clean water, and addressing contaminated sites.[7]
• Priority on building resource extraction and shipping infrastructure without “successive environmental assessments”.
• Natural resources policy prioritizes attracting investment, not addressing environmental impact.

 

 

Bloc Québecois

Worker Rights

• Support federal anti-scab legislation.
• 2021 platform contains employment standards reform including allowing precautionary cessation of work without loss of salary for future mothers, and making pension funds preferred creditors in the event of a bankruptcy.
• 2018 and 2011: Opposed back-to-work legislation in House of Commons

Expanded Postal Services / Cuts

• 2018: On M-166, Bill to discuss Postal Banking, 7 of 7 votes in favour.
• Many Bloc MPs and candidates have endorsed Delivering Community Power.

Pensions

• 2021 platform calls to protect retirement income, including public pensions and workers’ pension plans, and securing priority for pension liabilities in cases of insolvency.

Rural Post Offices

• No published policy available. Historically opposed to all postal service cutbacks.

Postal Deregulation

• Historically opposed to postal privatization or deregulation

Climate

• 2021 platform calls for ending fossil fuel subsidies, and many other climate actions.[8]

 

 

NDP

Listening to Labour

Items placed on the legislative agenda by the NDP as conditions of Supply and Confidence agreement with the Liberal Government:

• Anti-scab legislation
• National Pharmacare program (legislation tabled)
• Safe Long-term Care Act
• Early Learning and Child Care Act to secure protected long-term funding for quality, affordable childcare
• Just Transition legislation (Sustainable Jobs Bill C-50 tabled[9])
• In 2022, Jagmeet Singh met with the Prime Minister to call on Canada Post to reduce its fuel surcharge.[10]

 

Worker Rights

• 2023: Required federal anti-scab legislation as part of Supply and Confidence agreement
• NDP MPs regularly support workers on picket lines
• Have called for crackdown on misclassification of workers.
• 2018 and 2011: Strongly opposed back-to-work legislation in House of Commons

Expanded Postal Services / Cuts

• NDP Critic for Public Services and Procurement Taylor Bachrach initiated a study at the Government Operations and Estimates Committee on cuts to rural postal services.
• 2021: Reiterated promise to restore door-to-door delivery where it was cut between 2013 and 2015
• 2021 platform says “a New Democrat government will work with Canada Post to develop a model of postal banking that will help nearly two million Canadians access more affordable, quality banking services where none are currently available”[11]
• 2018: On M-166 Postal Banking, 33 of 33 votes in favour.
• Same document criticizes Liberal and Conservative Government public service cuts, including in postal services. It also mentions that the Liberal government only partly fulfilled their promise to restore door-to-door mail delivery. Promises to “to restore door-to-door mail delivery to all communities that lost it under the Conservative government, and protect against future cuts to this important service”[12]

Pensions

• With Labour, strongly opposed C-27 and supported expansion of CPP.

Rural Post Offices

• 2024: Launched study at committee on cuts to rural postal services
• 2023: Called on Liberals to end closure of rural post offices

Postal Deregulation

• Vocally opposed CPC selling off two subsidiaries in early 2024.[13]
• Opposed to postal deregulation or privatization of any public services.

Climate

• Frequently urges Federal Government to take bolder, faster action[14]
• 2023: Required Just Transition (Sustainable Jobs Act) legislation as part of Supply and Confidence agreement
• 2021 Platform: “… target of reducing our emissions by at least 50% from 2005 levels by 2030. To help us reach that goal we would eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, put in place carbon budgets and change the mandate of the Bank of Canada to focus on contributing to net zero.” Also promised green infrastructure investments that create good jobs.

 

 

Green Party

Worker Rights

• Opposed 2011 Back-to-work legislation in House of Commons.
• Has vocally supported striking public-service workers.
• 2021 Platform focuses on human rights as worker rights: better conditions for women and other equity-deserving groups in low union-density industries like long-term care; addressing disproportionate precarity for women, migrant and racialized workers; guaranteed liveable income. Also calls for Just Transition Act.
• Vision Green 2020 supports free collective bargaining, the Rand formula, and the right to strike, and opposes right-to-work laws.[15]

Expanded Postal Services / Cuts

• 2021 platform called for postal banking and other expanded services.
• 2018: On M-166, voted in favour.

Pensions

• 2021 platform calls for many measures to protect pension benefits, including super-priority for pension fund liabilities in cases of insolvency.

Rural Post Offices

• 2021 platform called for expanded rural postal services.

Postal Deregulation

• Historically opposed to postal privatization or deregulation
• Labour section of Green Vision 2020 includes increasing minimum paid vacation, decreasing standard work week to 35 hours, support for federal anti-scab legislation, and other improvements to basic employment standards.

Climate

• Calls for ending fossil fuel subsidies. Also calls for divestment of all public funds, including CPP, from fossil fuels.
• 2021 platform adopted basically the whole of our Delivering Community Power campaign.[16]

 

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