On December 11, 2013, we as workers for Canada Post found out that a five point plan had been hatched by Canada Post and its ally, the Conservative Government. This plan, negotiated behind the back of the Union, will eliminate six to eight thousand (6000 – 8000) jobs in the Letter Carrier group.
The announcement that was done in the early morning hours in Ottawa caught most people by surprise. In all the talks the Union had with the Corporation, including the one the day before the announcement, not once had the Corporation raised this issue.
The facts are that the Local Union, along with the Regional Grievance Officer Ken Mooney, was at a consultation for most of the day on December 10, 2013, talking about the Postal Transformation and how this would affect the external group 2 members. Not once during that consultation was this plan mentioned.
This can only mean one of two things:
One, that the managers sitting across from your Union representatives knew what was about to be announced and they were trying to assess the Union on the question of what to do with the surplus letter carriers and mail service couriers (due to Postal Transformation). In turn, they could use this method with future surpluses from this announcement.
Or two, upper management in Ottawa couldn’t trust their managers to be quiet on this issue and so kept it a secret from their Directors and Managers and didn’t tell them anything.
I am leaning to the “didn’t tell them anything” theory.
Whichever it was, the effects will be clear on the Letter Carrier (group 2 members). Routes will get longer, heavier, and with more parcels. We will have fewer people doing the job and we will be expected to “do more with less.”
The employer will try to break more people down; will try to make people leave early.
Whether through harassment and intimidation, or with rosy promises of greener pastures in other jobs.
The employer will continue to tell you how good these jobs are and how lucky you are to be working for Canada Post.
They will tell you that you can’t do overtime on your route and that mail volumes are light and that the time for you to deliver parcels is built into your route, no matter how many parcels you get each day.
They will hope you will work more time for free, as many of you are, or get fed up and leave the post office so that it will free up another position to be eliminated.
If you have been around for a few years, you will have seen some of these issues before. Most of these ideas have been tried before and if you hang around long enough you will see them again. Every time, it will work better and cheaper and will need fewer people to make it work. As the saying goes “Everything Old is New again.”
We have seen and been down this road before, a new idea that was tried twenty (20) years ago.Some new Vice President, President or government, or business think tank has a better idea. An idea that didn’t work in the past but now it will work.
A few years ago the post office was to deliver the last mile. Now we are delivering on the promise by leaving your mail at the end of the street in a large metal container.
No more last mile, no more promise.
As in the words in the Song “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who, “Meet the new boss same as the old boss.”
In Solidarity,
Pat Bertrand
1st Vice President
ck/CUPE-3338