Local postal workers have joined more than 55,000 CUPW members who walked off the job Thursday following several significant changes announced to Canada Post by the government.--NEW FILE PHOTO
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
Approximately 120 local union workers from Medicine Hat, Brooks, Redcliff and surrounding communities have walked off the job after the government announced major reforms to Canada Post on Thursday morning.
According to the Minister of Public Works and Procurement, Joël Lightbound, Canada Post will be ceasing its door-to-door mail delivery operations within the next decade. Those changes also will include slowing down the frequency of mail delivery and shuttering some post offices. Lightbound said the changes are meant to shore up Canada Post’s finances, adding that the corporation “needs to show a path to financial viability.”
The minister said the federal government will accept all recommendations in the Industrial Inquiry Commission’s report on Canada Post, which also called for the introduction of more community mailboxes.
“Canada Post is a national institution, older than our country itself, that has been serving Canadians for more than 150 years. For generations, postal workers have connected communities in every corner of the country, providing an essential lifeline to hundreds of northern, Indigenous and rural communities,” Lightbound said.
“At the same time, Canada Post is now facing an existential crisis,” he added. “Repeated bailouts from the federal government are not the solution.”
The change to mail delivery is expected to increase the time it takes Canada Post to deliver letter mail from an average of three to four days to an average of three to seven days.
Canada Post welcomed the changes in a statement, saying they will allow it to chart a strong path forward in line with the changing needs of Canadians.
“We take this responsibility seriously and will work closely with the government and our employees to move with urgency and implement the necessary changes in a thoughtful manner,” said president and CEO Doug Ettinger.
“Our goal is to ensure that a strong, affordable, Canadian-made, Canadian-run delivery provider supports the needs of today’s economy and delivers to every community across the country.”
The commission also recommended changes to Canada Post’s collective agreement to allow the Crown corporation to hire part-time employees for weekends to help with the weekday load.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers swiftly fired back calling the announcement an attack on the public post office.
“This announcement was an outrage,” said Jan Simpson, union nation president in a media release. “Minister Lightbound gave the Union no indication that he was going to do this when leadership met with him last week.”
Other changes announced Thursday include converting four million addresses to community mailboxes, removing the rural moratorium on post office closures, cutting delivery requirements and allowing Canada Post the ability to raise stamp rate more frequently.
Lightbound says the changes will undermine the public mail service and erode delivery standards, which could impact confidence in Canada’s mail service.
“This slapdash approach without full public consultation is an insult to the public and to postal workers,” said Lightbound.
Local union 776 vice-president Karen Hellawell says the announcement by the minster is “absolutely devastating,” not just to postal workers but for all Canadians.
“Canada Post as a whole will be demolished,” said Hellawell. “It was really unexpected, we expected that the government would force the corporation to sit down and give us a collective agreement that could be ratified, and instead, what we got was the demolishment of Canada Post.”
In Medicine Hat workers were notified by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers that strike action was taken in the Atlantic region immediately after hearing a number of changes would be made to the Crown corporation.
Union workers in the Alberta region were next to join the cross-country strike and walked off the job shortly after the noon hour.
“I think that the public has to be fully aware of what’s going on now, we need to show that presence and let them know that we’re defending Canada Post now, not just postal workers,” said Hellawell.
Local postal workers are expected to hit the picket lines Friday outside the post office along Spencer Street SE and will be holding “Save Canada Post” signs.
Canada Post has 45 days to come back to the federal government with a plan to implement the changes.
— with files from The Canadian Press
