Some Thoughts

 Some things I want to get out while I'm thinking about them. I've been thinking about the recently forced back to work Canada Post employees. I wonder if there's a little extra behind the hate and the "Just privatize the whole outfit" rhetoric. 

Canada Post, much like the USPS, is a federal mail service. It's a Crown Corporation. It was a Government Department until 1981, when it was moved from a department to its own entity owned by the Government. 

Now, a Crown Corporation is an entity that has more independence than a department and is there to provide services to areas that private enterprise would not want to establish service. 

So what I'm thinking is this: People get upset about the strikes and demonize the workers because any statement is about money. The workers might be trying to get better working conditions, but the main talking point always pointed out is money. The only thing I ever heard discussed by people was the wage increase. Not the Union trying to protect Full time jobs and benefits. Yes, the Union is asking for an increase. The number I heard and the context didn't make sense until I looked into it more and saw it's 20% total over 5 years.. 

I've read many calls to cut service to once a week, install neighbourhood mailboxes, and just outright elimination of Canada Post and have a Private entity take over service. 

Now... I've lived in a few places over my life. I grew up in a small northern town. Our mail was at the Post Office. We'd go pick up our mail in the box. 

Most of Canada is rural. My hometown, Terrace Bay, is on the north shore of Lake Superior. It's 3 hours form Thunder Bay, 6 hours from Sault Ste Marie. 12 from Toronto. There are a number of small towns on the way along highway 17. There's also what amounts to a three hour window of nothingness between Wawa and Sault Ste Marie. 

Greyhound left Canada because of the rural nature of the country. Do you really think a company knowing the challenges of how much rural territory there is would take over service for that area? 

People talk about email and online apps for bills etc. Ok. How about your driver's license. Health card? People worry about being tracked and scammed out of their money sometimes.. Do you want your bank card to go through the same device that can be used to track and possibly scam you?? Places that are isolated would be completely unserviced. 

"Oh the Postal Workers are lazy blah blah blah" 

Are they? At one time I could walk quite a bit. For areas that still have mostly door to door serivce, that's a way of life for the postie. The funny thing is the people who want Canada Post to go to once a week and to Neighbourhood boxes would be causing the laziness issue they're so worked up about. 

"Canada Post is losing money"

Yes.. It has been losing money for a while. But is that the workers' faults? Or is it the people in charge of the Corporation? 

If it was a Private entity, seven years of losses, the CEO would have been fired long ago. If it was a Private entity, they would cut unprofitable locations. Much like Greyhound did before they Noped out of Canada. One of the first routes cut by Greyhound was the Toronto to Thunder Bay route. They kept the routes in the more urban areas because they made money. It would be the same for any Private Mail Carrier. 

So really, rather than getting upset at the workers, (and I know it's easy to get upset at them) look at both sides of the issue. Or, you know.. If you think they're so lazy and the job is so easy for what they're paid, Go get a job as a Postie.. 

This actually went a little off the rails.. I hope this long winded rant made some sort of sense..