Postal workers who want to discuss the way forward in their struggle and share their views on the tentative agreements should contact the Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee at canadapostworkersrfc@gmail.com or by filling out the form at the end of this article.

Canada Post confirmed last week that, on the orders of the Mark Carney-led Liberal government, it is moving ahead with “consultations” on implementing a far-reaching restructuring plan. Dictated by the federal Liberal government, the transformation of the postal service into an Amazon-style employer of precarious “gig workers” will result in the elimination of tens of thousands of jobs.

The announcement marks a decisive escalation in the ruling class’ effort to remake the Crown corporation into a hyper-exploitative, profit-driven logistics operation. Their goal is to use the restructuring of Canada Post as the spearhead of a broader assault on public sector workers and the working class as a whole.

Reports indicate the government has already authorized the implementation of the initial restructuring proposals unveiled in September 2025 and ordered Canada Post to return within another 45 days with a further round of “transformation” measures. This sets in place a rolling process of continuous cuts and restructuring, dictated directly by the big business Liberal government, in which one wave of attacks prepares another.

Behind demands for “modernization” and “financial stabilization,” the measures outlined last September and now being enforced entail a program of social devastation: the elimination of home mail delivery, the closure or sell-off of rural and suburban post offices, the scrapping of the five-day delivery standard, shifting non-urgent mail from air to slower ground transport, and the expansion of precarious weekend parcel work. These measures will destroy Canada Post as a universal public service and turn those workers who remain into a precarious, low-wage workforce.

The mandated consultations, to begin with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and then extend to municipal leaders and other “stakeholders,” are a fraud. The essential decisions have already been taken behind closed doors by Canada Post management and the federal government. Management’s restructuring blueprint, submitted late last year to Ottawa, remains hidden from workers and the public alike. Even the corporatist “partners” in the leadership of the union bureaucracy have not been granted access to the secret plan worked out between management and the government. Its implementation will require shredding the current Canadian Postal Service Charter, which mandates universal door-to-door delivery.

Liberal MP Joël Lightbound, the federal minister responsible for Canada Post, has expressly directed the corporation to impose “a series of measures to stabilize the Corporation’s finances and enable its modernization.” In practice, this means rapidly returning Canada Post to profitability, a goal shared by the union bureaucracy.

Former Canada Post executive and Carleton University business professor Ian Lee has repeatedly insisted that up to 40,000 jobs, out of roughly 55,000 current workers, must be cut. This would reduce the workforce to a skeletal operation focused on rural and remote delivery. Canada Post’s reported losses, totaling more than $5 billion since 2018, are being cynically invoked to justify this social counterrevolution, even as the government of former central banker Prime Minister Mark Carney lavishes tens of billions on the military and corporate subsidies and tax cuts.

The latest government announcement comes as postal workers prepare to vote between April 20 and May 30 on concessionary contracts that will pave the way for the imposition of the restructuring plan. They will at the same time be voting on strike action.

As the World Socialist Web Site has explained, the two agreements covering the urban and rural and suburban units—endorsed by a majority of the CUPW bargaining committee—accept management’s core demands for “flexibility,” expanded part-time and weekend work, wages that lag inflation, and the erosion of longstanding protections. They are, in substance, a framework for dismantling secure, full-time postal employment and aligning working conditions with the requirements of the restructuring.

A minority faction within the union leadership, headed by CUPW President Jan Simpson, has postured as opposing the deal by calling for a “No” vote. This maneuver is a transparent attempt to distance the bureaucracy from the consequences of a sellout it has itself facilitated. Simpson has for well over two years led CUPW as it has confined the opposition among rank-and-file workers to the straitjacket of the “collective bargaining” system. She oversaw the sabotage of two national strikes, above all by systematically isolating postal workers on the picket line by refusing to call for a broader mobilization of the working class in defence of public services and worker rights.

Simpson, in a March 30 statement, complained, “This is not the right time to consult… This latest move by Canada Post and the Government is yet again another attempt to derail our negotiations process.” This statement deliberately obscures the reality that it is the government’s restructuring diktat that determines the content and outcome of the “negotiations.” The contracts do not offer an alternative to the restructuring but the means by which the union bureaucracy can assist with implementing it.
Simpson consciously omitted any call for industrial or political action to stop the restructuring. Instead, she appealed to the very government orchestrating the attack to conduct a “full public mandate review.” All that this would achieve would be to provide some “democratic” legitimacy to decisions already taken behind the scenes in the interests of corporate Canada.

By insisting that workers remain confined within the pro-employer “collective bargaining” framework, the CUPW bureaucracy is blocking any struggle against what is fundamentally a political offensive by the Liberal government. Opposing the destruction of Canada Post requires a political fight against the government’s austerity and war agenda, a fight which the union apparatus rejects.

The government and management have made clear they will proceed with restructuring regardless of what is said in the review or the outcome of the contract vote. The agreements are designed to secure labor peace and impose the initial concessions required for the transformation plan. A “No” vote combined with a strike mandate, while vitally necessary, will not stop the government-management assault.

Postal workers have already demonstrated their willingness to fight. In 2024, they carried out strike action during peak delivery season and mounted a nationwide spontaneous walkout last year in defiance of government intervention and the union bureaucracy’s corporatist collaboration. These struggles were systematically isolated and shut down by the union apparatus, which operates as a labor police force subordinated to the government and corporate management and seeks only a “seat at the table.”

The fight to defend jobs and public postal services cannot be waged within the pro-employer collective bargaining framework or under the control of the CUPW bureaucracy. Workers must vote “No” to the latest concessions-filled contracts and “Yes” to authorize a strike. But these necessary steps will only offer a way forward if workers fight for an entirely new perspective based on the mobilization of all workers against the destruction of public services, jobs and working conditions.

The Carney government’s assault on public sector workers is accelerating. It has issued thousands of layoff notices across federal departments, including in healthcare and scientific research, while preparing massive increases in military spending and corporate handouts. The attack on postal workers is a test case for the dismantling of public services across the board.

This agenda is being pursued with the full support of the trade union bureaucracy, which has for decades pursued “partnership” with government and business interests. Across sectors, unions are enforcing concessions and suppressing resistance in the name of “competitiveness” and “fiscal responsibility.” Under the banner of “Team Canada,” they are also pitting Canadian workers against their class brothers and sisters in the US, where workers confront the same attacks on their democratic and social rights at the hands of the fascist Trump administration.

Workers must take matters into their own hands. They can do this by building sections of the Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee (PWRFC) in every postal office, depot and sorting plant across Canada. Established in 2024, the PWRFC provides the means to unite workers across workplaces, break through the information blackout imposed by CUPW and Canada Post, and develop a common independent strategy.

In response to Carney’s wrecking operation, the central demand must be the transformation of Canada Post under workers’ democratic control into a genuinely public service, run to meet social needs, not profit. This means defending universal door-to-door delivery, expanding services, and guaranteeing secure, well-paid jobs. Technological advances must be used to improve working conditions and service, not eliminate jobs.

Postal workers cannot fight alone. Their struggle must be linked with that of workers across Canada and internationally, including postal and logistics workers confronting similar attacks. This requires a conscious break with nationalist and pro-capitalist politics and the adoption of an international socialist perspective.

The destruction of Canada Post as a public service is not inevitable. The resources exist to expand postal services and guarantee secure jobs. What stands in the way is the subordination of society to private profit and the interests of a financial oligarchy.