Canada Post: Profits Before People

Cynthia Wiggins

Canada post management has a strategy to make private postal outlets more acceptable than the public post office. It goes something like this:

Open a private franchise close to a public post office.

Understaff the public office and reduce hours and types of service so the private outlet is more convenient for the public.

Close the public office. Claim it is inefficient and not cost-effective.

Canada Post's ultimate goal is to close all public post offices by 1996 that's 5221 rural and 734 urban-and replace them with private sector franchises.
Along with the cuts to Via Rail, the privatization of postal services in rural Canada is saving small communities.
Over the past two years, 66 communities have lost all their postal services and 3,500 households must travel up to 58 kilometres to obtain retail services. Management projections for 1989-1993 show that over 8,000 postal jobs will be cut while mail volume is expected to increase by 35 percent.

Canada post is representative of our fine tradition of providing public services to meet the needs of the people. It has contributed greatly to our economic, social and cultural life, linking people in every nook and cranny of the country. Mail delivery to rural Canada and to isolated northern communities has been subsidized to ensure fair and affordable access for all. It is also a critical link for the elderly, the disabled and the poor.

Through collective bargaining, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers is waging a monumental battle to protect both jobs and the public post office.

Over the years, the union has offered suggestions to improve postal service to better serve the public, generate revenue and create jobs at the same time. These have been ignored by management. Clearly, the intent is to privatize Canada post, not improve it as a public service.

Meanwhile the piecemeal privatization of Canada post will continue to mean the loss of well-paid, public service jobs in return for low-wage, part-time, unstable jobs; a further saving of the viability of rural and northern communities, and a decline in the quality and accessibility of service to the public.

Through the extended use of group and community mailboxes in all new subdivisions, not only is the public being denied equitable service, but letter carrier jobs are being limited and delivery of mail to the superboxes is increasingly being contracted out. By 1994, well over one million households will pick up their mail this way.

We in the labour movement can support CUPW's demands to halt the privatization of our post office and to use profits to extend services by writing letters to local MPs, the prime minister, Harvie Andre, the minister responsible, and Donald Lander, president, Canada Post Corporation.

(CX5058)

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