With apologies for this editorial reference being a few weeks old but I only read it in Maclean's today.
What struck the greatest chords with me were what was written at the beginning:
Rain or snow or sleet or hail can’t disrupt the mail. But what rhymes with seven weeks of annual paid vacation, out-of-whack pay scales or infinitely bankable sick days?While the rotating strike by workers at Canada Post has proven to be a hardship for many Canadian businesses, it is also shining necessary light on the massive disparity between postal employees and workers in the private sector. Outside of bureaucrats in France, it is hard to imagine a more coddled, out-of-touch and overcompensated group than postal workers.
And also written at the end:
Of course the current postal dispute has significance far beyond the future of letter mail or the ambitions of Canada Post and its union. The gap between private and public sector compensation has now reached crisis proportions, and must be addressed for the sake of equity, affordability and coherent labour peace.One example of how large and untenable this gap has become can be found in Statistics Canada’s recent observation that public sector employees now constitute a majority of all pension plan participants, despite being outnumbered more than three to one in the workforce. This suggests two types of retirement in the future: one of carefree luxury for public sector employees, and one of reduced expectations for everyone else. A similar dichotomy is at work with Ontario’s practice of paying a bonus to every corrections staffer who takes fewer than 23 sick days per year.
A postal strike seems as good a time as any to start imposing a new sense of reality on the public sector.
So SDA readers & commenters, if you were Stephen Harper, what would you do with Canada Post and how quickly would you do it?
This photo was taken by my friend while I was driving around the Vancouver Riot Aftermath. When I saw it afterwards I was immediately struck by the fact that the elderly "minority" couple were working hard to clean up the mess of the fires in front of the Canada Post building while smiling, striking postal workers were casually strolling along behind them. That spoke volumes to me.
There is a difference, but the private package and mail pretenders were not in the business first. The Royal Warrant of mail delivery is with the government, and Canada Post. Fed ex, john ex, or any other lowlevel package hauler were not overtaken by canada post, they happily entered into competition with the knowledge that they would never be allowed to have the Royal Warrant of mail delivery. So as to the wage differences, there was never any mystery over that.
Time for door to door mail to go away. That's what email is for. The Rural route system runs fine with contractors.
Canada Post make most of their money in packages now. Prices similar to couriers. Without that they would loose billions more.
"Outside of (French bureaucrats) it is hard to imagine a more coddled, out-of-touch and overcompensated group than postal workers."
I don't find it that hard to imagine.
How about the NDP caucus for starters? Then the people who are "researching" global warming but hey you know what, by golly, they never seem to find that it DOES NOT EXIST (by golly, know who I'm talking about?). I'm not that impressed by UN diplomats, CBC staffers, the list goes on.
At least with postal workers, they are out there working where we can actually see something happening. That's quite an improvement over much of the public sector.
Privatize it along with the CBC.
Both Canada Post and The post office should not be privatized. If they are privatized they will still be doing the same thing except with different ownership. They should be disbanded. Letter mail is obsolete, there are plenty of couriers, and TV and radio stations. They are not needed at all.
There are a few old people who still use the mail for letters, bills, and paying bills. There won't be for much longer. Disbanding the PO now will only slightly speed up something that will happen within 10 years anyway
Its time to turn the Post Office over to private enterprise.The elephant in the room here is the unfunded pension liabilities of Canada Post,and guess who will be responsible for those handreds of millions.Yep its going to be us poor taxpayin slobs down near the bottom of the food chain.The sooner we get rid of these parasites the better off Canada will be!
For a start I would like to ban unions of public servants and implement Right-To-Work laws Canada wide.
In talking with an acquaintance who happens to be a postie, the pensions are indeed the problem. Canada Post is forced to reduce the size of its workforce and bring in letter sorting machines, and the posties don't want that either (guess nobody ever told them about the Luddites). Either they're going to lose their jobs or their pensions, and they want to keep both.
The private sector has a 20 year head start on the restructuring and downsizing required by advances in technology. It is long past time for a downsizing to occur in all areas of the federal government. Canada Post is just the start. It ought to be privatized, but if not then it needs to be downsized.
More fundamentally, public sector unions should be outlawed, period. If the function performed is of such low importance that a strike can be tolerated without drastic hardship nationwide, then that function isn't important enough for the federal government to be doing in the first place.
1) I'd instantly open ALL forms / sizes / weights of postal delivery in Canada to competition from the private sector.
2) I'd tell Canada Post that is will receive preciwely zero govt subsidies from this day forth, and pass a law banning such subsidies.
3) I'D CHNAGE ALL GOVT PENSIONS - INCLUDING MPs -INTO RRSPs TO WHICH THE EMPLOYEE CONTRIBUTES X% OF THEIR INCOME AND THE GOVT (= WE TAXPAYERS) ALSO CONTRIBUTE HALF THAT AMOUNT WHILE THEY ARE EMPLOYED ... WHEN GOVT EMPLYMENT ENDS, SO DOES OUR CONTRIBUTION TO THEIR PENSIONS.
4) If govt is the sole / monopoly provider of a service (eg - "healthcare"), then by extension that service HAS to be "essential", and therefore NO STRIKES ALLOWED. Any govt employee striking is instantly fired, a la Reagan with the U.S. air trafiic controllers in 1981.
That was easy ... next insolvable crisis please.
Time the Fat Cats were de-hairballed!
Now I remember when.... :-) , and I'm not yet of pension age, first class letters were 5 cts with 2 day delivery anywhere in province; unsealed cards ie: Christmas, birthday, etc were either 3 or 4 cts.
Where the hell are we now, and you think the service is even half as good?
Harper's got a lot of work ahead of him!
I'd let them stew.
Somebody stole my Visa card number (not the card, just the number) several weeks ago, I had to cancel and destroy the card and a new card was sent out via Canada Post. I'm still waiting for the delivery of the PIN, which seems to be delayed indefinitely by the strike. There turns out to be an alternative. My bank has sent out another card in their internal mail. I'm not sure why they couldn't have done that in the first place considering the strike, but in future that's how I will have them handle any business. This is the first time in many months that I used Canada Post and from now on I have no intention of ever using them again. They can stay on strike forever for all I care and the NDP can waste our tax money in the HOC singing songs and generally behaving like children. They're all a bunch of useless tools.
Snagglepuss: "Now I remember when.... :-) "
Do you remember the annual strikes at Christmas?
Junk mail (including Taliban (Rub & Tug) Jack's spam), gov't mail, a few remaining bills, and birthday/Christmas/invitation cards is all we get.
I do understand that there are B2B invoices and checks sent - but at some time that will be a clickable thingy (so long that the banks get to sit on transferring the funds).
They'll hang around for another 20 years or so ... did you know they still have fireman on the trains in Australia?
"For a start I would like to ban unions of public servants and implement Right-To-Work laws Canada wide."
Posted by: Kroket at June 26, 2011 10:23 PM
Megaditto's!
Why is our esteemed PMSH (i won't call him a CINO yet...) interfering in the Mapleflot and Canada not Post issues?
Let them rot and close up shop. The sooner the better.
Takes 50,000 union subsidies away from a hard leftard army a.k.a. cupe.
Completely Unskilled Parasitic Entities
The Royal Warrant...?
Next thing you know you we will have those newfangled abominations called steam engines make us horse buggy makers surplus!
Stop progress! The king said so!
They could start by ending all personal door to door delivery. Time to give the tax payers a break. Fire 50% of the letter carriers get them off the taxpayers payroll.
Infinity: ... did you know they still have fireman on the trains in Australia?
- Not only there, I have friends, errr make that acquaintances, on CN payroll, classified as conductors and firemen, drawing obscene wages for doing FA other than union shit-stirring.
The coal stoker is long gone, as is the caboose (replaced by the hot-box detecter) but once entrenched....geez!
Up until the `60s there was an accepted tradeoff: public sector
employees had poor pay but high job security, relative to private
sector employees. Then it was discovered that by holding the
public hostage, high salaries and benefits could be extorted for the
"public servants" as well.
fire. them. all.
The unions will prevail because our politicians are assholes.
And we are the idiots who vote them in.
My solution to the postal strike is real simple.
1 - Offer to sell Canada post to the union employees for 20 bucks as is where is no guarantees. (This will be far cheaper than any negotiated settlement that pays any more than 1/2 of the current wage structure never mind the benefit package.)
2 - If they do not want to buy it shut the damn thing down. Emails are every bit as good and you do not have to go to the corner store at 40 below or in the rain and hail for a bloody stamp.
I should go fill out an application at Canada Post instead of busting my butt in the private sector. Even the new hires with the proposed reduced benefits and wages seems like a pretty sweet to deal to me. They need a wake up call.
Federal RIGHT TO WORK legislation, NOW!
When I saw the posties out protesting, guys with dread locks banging on drums, my first thought was, hey, these guys need more money and better pensions. Yup,that's I thought.
What I would suggest:
1. Canada Post could reduce residential mail delivery (towns and cities) to 2 or 3 days per week, and keep business mail to daily delivery.
2. For older residential areas that still receive door to door delivery, they could/should install superboxes.
3. Keep the rural post offices open.
Rural post offices are nice but they too could be privitized. In the big cities - door to door delivery needs to be stopped- people including the elderly will adjust and like "Superboxes".
This strike was the last nail in the Canada
Post coffin as likely more businesses will go to Online billing and communication.
Somebody should explain to Canada Post what this crazy little thing called the internet is, how email works, and what a smart phone is. They have simply accelerated their own demise, thank god for unions!
No strikes in any situation where a government imposed monopoly exists. That means virtually all public employees at all levels of government.
If I were Steven Harper with a CPC majority, the posties would be back at work already. No negotiations, just back to work. Pension plan to be privatized ASAP, right to strike repealed. Job done.
Wildcat strike? No problem, hire new guys.
Public sector unions are anathema in a free society. The people with skin in the game (taxpayers) are not the ones negotiating salary and benefits. You can tell by the retirement packages outlined by posters above.
Or, we could just follow Greece down the bowl.
The Canada Post solution is simple...refer to Deutsche Post for fine example.
Super-Mailboxes for ALL. Then allow bids on the delivery for each region. Privatize sorting and distribution as well. Competition improves service and lowers cost, it's been proven time and again...
'This union is corrupt'
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/1027440058001
This guy is so very full of BS
raise the price of a stamp to $10.oo
problem solved
Canada Post mail delivery should be cut to three days a week, considering volumes are down significantly from 20 years ago and will continue to do so after this strike. Three days a week should make most postal workers "part-time" and therefore would only be eligible for benefits of a part-time employee. This should cut costs immensely.
Set up a new corporation called Canada Pillar, and then have Canada Post employees transferred endlessly back and forth between them...