Canada Post (CP) has paused collective bargaining negotiations with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), while warning of the potential for a work stoppage when the union's current labor deal expires on May 22. 

In a May 13 release, CP asserted that the pause was necessary to give it more time to put together a new proposal, and claimed that the union has "either held or hardened its previous positions on key issues, leaving little room for progress." CP also said that it had previously hoped to have come to an agreement well before the May 22 deadline, and that there is now a "possibility" of a labor disruption on or after that date. 

The CUPW released a statement of its own shortly after Canada Post's, claiming that the union has been left in the dark as to when negotiations might pick back up again, and that CP "has refused to take responsibility for the financial situation it finds itself in." Canada Post has recorded annual losses in each year dating back to 2018, and prior to receiving a $1 billion lifeline from the federal government in January, it reported that it was on pace to completely deplete its cash reserves by Q2 of 2025. CP also laid off 50 management employees in early February over what it described to Global News as a "critical financial situation."

Talks between CP and the CUPW have proceeded by fits and starts for months. CUPW workers went on strike for nearly a month in November 2024, before the government stepped in to order the union back to work. Negotiations picked back up again in February, but both sides left the table without a deal a month later. They then met with a mediator over two days in late-April to kickstart a new round of talks, before CP paused negotiations two weeks later.