Dear Editor,
I have been a Postal Worker for 30 years, the last three years in the Kootenays.
I enjoy my job, particularly my daily interactions with customers.
Like most postal workers, I worked through the pandemic; we were called heroes and considered essential workers.
Since that time, we have received meagre wage increases which have not kept pace with the current cost of living, so many of us are struggling to make ends meet.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has been at the bargaining table with our employer for almost a year and have met over 100 times.
CUPW’s goal is to achieve a fair and negotiated settlement.
However, Canada Post has come to the table with demands for huge concessions, proposing to drastically change our working conditions, pensions, and benefits while offering a small wage increase that still keeps our wages below the rate of inflation.
Canada Post pleads losses, but executives continue to receive undisclosed bonuses.
$400 million dollars was spent on the new Albert Jackson processing center in Scarborough, Ontario.
$100 million dollars were spent on new vehicles, some of which sit idle and unused.
CUPW has offered ideas for keeping post offices a vital and viable service, suggesting Postal Banking services, a check-in program for seniors, and providing electric vehicle charging stations at all post offices.
Yet Canada Post refuses to entertain the possibility of expanding its services to generate more revenue.
Postal workers recognize that the nature of mail has changed, but Canada Post can remain an important and vibrant part of communities, adapting to a changing postal climate, without sacrificing the rights of its workers to safe working conditions, fair wages and benefits, and a pension we can count on.
Postal workers across Canada voted 95 per cent in favour of a strike, if necessary, to protect our jobs and prevent the rollbacks proposed by our employers.
I ask for your support if you see us on a picket line.
It is your Post Office, and our work.
Respectfully,
Mike Bryan
CUPW Local 716
Lead Shop Steward External
