On strike! Canada Post employees across the country, including in Bracebridge and Huntsville, hit the picket lines this morning.
Roughly 55,000 Canada Post workers are now on strike after negotiations failed yesterday. The primary sticking point is over pay. The union representing the postal workers, Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), says the government needs to step up and increase wages workers are paid to keep in line with inflation.
There will be no mail or parcel delivery during the strike and some post offices will close, according to the Crown corporation.
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In the 60’s Canada Post was a sort of sacred functional monopoly and no significant business in Canada could operate without them.
Now, after 80 years of strikes, downsizing, ever diminishing services and ever rising costs, Canada Post has almost made itself irrelevant. Not quite, but getting there.
This seems to be the fate of many government agencies. They start off well and gradually dilute their services to the point that they no longer matter.
Most of my business “mail” such as billings and reports now comes to me electronically. Maybe the age of sending a piece of paper is ending?
This is sad as somehow getting an actual card for a birthday or event, or receiving an interesting magazine has always seemed “better” in reality than via some podcast, at least to me.
All the individual employees of Canada Post that I have ever interacted with seem to be doing a good job so I have to wonder if it is the fault of management.
Maybe, the suggestions to cut the whole enterprise lose from government and let private enterprise take over is a good one. Certainly the package delivery world has gone pretty much this way and it works better than ever.
The postal workers make a decent liveable wage with benefits and pension. I would like to know any one in town besides council have ever gotten the cost of living increase. Your darn lucky to get any sort of raise these days and actually for the last 30 years I never got the increase in cost of living. We are all finding it hard to manage but I think they come out ahead of the rest of us. If I had been smart I would have got a government job. No downside to that.
They def deserve fair wages but I hav no idea what each position pays.
I found the “average” for Canada Post wrkers in Ontario was almst $55,000/yr plus benefits and pension whch is doubl what i make and iv never had a job tht offered a pension or any benefits so hard for me to get behind this strike.
I thnk there cld be issues with parttime wrkers perhaps (who dont get pension/benefits and are paid less) but jst not sure.
I realiz tht jst becaus Im struggling more thn thm doesnt mean theyr not entitled to a livng wage….i jst feel for the rest of us wrkng hard for mch less who will never hav a pension to look forward to, who never get paid sick days or any medical benefits, no eye glasses or dental visits covered etc….times are so tough right now 🙁
We need to sell this service. It’s out of touch with the reality.