LETTER: Canada Post is an ‘essential’ national service, not a business

BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to ongoing Canada Post labour dispute.

I stand 100 per cent with the union and the workers at Canada Post.

Canada Post would like everyone to believe this is about vacation days or pay. It’s really not. They want you to believe that the survival of the “business” requires their solutions and only their solutions. They paint a narrow view of the picture without ever truly acknowledging what the union is asking for, the solutions they’ve presented, and Canada Post continues to negotiate in bad faith.

I’ve come up with a series of points that I feel are important distinctions for Canadians to remember in these troubled times. I am, of course, just a person with an opinion. Aren’t we all? 

So, I encourage everyone reading to do their own research: to follow what the union, CUPW, is saying, the reasonable arguments they’ve made, and what they’re really fighting for. To then contrast and compare with the rhetoric that conservative media and Canada Post themselves are saying.

Together, we can grow and learn and at the end of the day that’s the most important thing.

First and foremost: Canada Post is a service.

Our Canadian mail service is not a business. Yes, it has been lovely that it can make money and pay for itself, even generate revenue for the country in its best times, but we must all remember something very important.

Canada Post is not just a business, we may call it a Crown corporation all we want, but at the end of the day it is providing an essential service to Canadians. Just like with health care, as a service, it does not need to make money. It needs to exist to serve Canadians.

If you think comparing it to health care is heavy handed, I’ll outline why I think it’s not that far a stretch in a later point. For now, just keep in mind: Canada Post should not be required to make money, it should be required to serve Canadians.

Comparison is the theft of joy.

I once heard someone say “I don’t care who you are, if you’re making $20 or more an hour you shouldn’t be complaining” in relation to the Canada Post strike December 2024. This really shocked me enough that I butted into their conversation, which is fairly unlike me.

At this point in time, it’s not a “why are they complaining?” it’s more of a “why aren’t we complaining? Why aren’t we supporting them?” situation.

The cost of living is always going up, but a blind spot for most is that wages have been so far behind inflation over the last five years or more it’s insane.

When home ownership is starting to become a pipe dream for younger generations our older generations used to have mortgages that equated to a year’s salary for them. I’m not invalidating their struggles, because there will always be struggles, but can we have a little grace and acceptance?

Instead of saying “why you and not me?” can we say “Why not me, too?” Let’s support our workers, let’s turn back the clock on union busting, and start fighting for fair, living, wages for everyone.

They don’t want to be striking anymore than we want them to be striking.

“How dare they inconvenience us!” is a sentiment that was almost palpable during the December 2024 strike. It was definitely inconvenient sure, but remember where your anger should be placed. It’s not the workers that are at fault here.

The workers are fighting for their rights. They’re fighting for forward progress rather than backward cuts to things that have already been negotiated and agreed upon. They’re fighting for good Canadian jobs, rather than Canada Post gutting full-time workers and trying to compete with industries like Amazon that are actively exploiting gig economy-style workers to make their profits.

We should not be copying business models of for-profit endless growth at all costs style corporations for a Canadian public service!

We’ve already invalidated their Charter rights as citizens once. When the labour board ended the strike action of Canada Post workers, make no mistake, this was an invalidation of their Charter rights.

Earlier, I said Canada Post was a service akin to healthcare? Well, here’s all the proof you needed. The big hand of government decided that the disruption of the post was too much and ended the strike action effectively declaring Canada Post an essential service. A service. Not a business.

Why then are they trying to treat Canada Post like a for-profit business? We shouldn’t be. Please remember that even though volumes are down, when Canada Post was on strike third-party parcel delivery services were so overwhelmed that they began cancelling their regular contracts in order to handle the overflow. Canada Post is here for the day-to-day Canadians and small businesses. They are just as fast, often more efficient, and more accessible to Canadians in need.

Rural areas are important, too, and we cannot build at their expense.

Canada Post is the only parcel delivery available to many northern and rural locations. This is because it doesn’t make financial sense for third-party services to visit these areas.

In many cases this is how rural areas without pharmacies receive their medications. Sometimes elderly Canadians have no other contact except with their postal workers.

The union wants what’s best for Canadians and their customers and have tabled many alternatives to expand services and revenue. They’ve got working models from other post office organizations all over the world, but Canada Post refuses to consider anything but their arbitrary answer.

The above points, in my opinion, are pretty clear. While it’s never going to be black and white, the working class of Canada needs to stand together and advocate for fair, living wages.

We need to realize the difference between for-profit corporations and public services like Canada Post. We should be listening to the postal workers themselves, who come to the table with alternatives to increase revenue streams without trying to compete with aggressive, worker exploiting, for-profit business models. We should be moving forward to paint a better picture, not trying to walk backward on past negotiations for hard-fought gains.

A rising tide lifts all ships; let us support those who support us. Solidarity and unity are needed.

At the end of the day if we cannot support other working-class Canadians eventually when it comes time that we need help, there’ll be no one left to support us.

Let’s work together for a brighter, better Canada in which all workers can live meaningful and secure lives without the fears of food insecurity, homelessness, and inadequate wages. Only in supporting each other can we see the meaningful change that we want.

Joshua Burns

Orillia