I'm going to side with the postal workers in this.
Canada Post continues to earn record profits. In fact, for more than 15 years in a row they have
never lost money; in all that time, they've continuously made a profit. In 2010, their profits were almost $300 million. Yet instead of sharing
any of this wealth with the people that made their profits possible, or
(heaven forbid) even maintaining the status quo & letting the employees keep what little they have...
...they actually want huge
concessions from their employees. How would you feel if you worked hard at a job that includes a lot of physical labour
(carrying heavy mail, all over the city, day after day) - only to have your bosses come in & say the following:
"Hey there! Well, we made almost $300 million last year in profits, as the direct result of your labour. Now we don't want to give any of it to you, not one thin dime...and we're certainly going to give whopping bonuses to all of us here at the top. But we do want to cut your benefits, rights & pay to even less than you have now. Significant cuts, in fact. That alright with you?"
Those postal workers have every reason to say
"um...no" to such baloney. This is one of those cases where a union is actually serving its intended, ideal purpose: to prevent the unfair exploitation of the workers.
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These people have a hard job, carrying all that mail all over the place day after day. They're good people. And they don't deserve to be exploited...which is clearly what the upper management would like to try & do.
Consider: there hasn't been a national postal strike since 1997. And yet during the last 4 years, while the most recent negotiated agreement was in place...the company has shown little interest in maintaining a good relationship with its employees. It has pushed to make working conditions
more difficult than before. They've recently made changes to the sorting & carrying procedures that slow the system down & excessively burden our mail carriers. But despite this baloney...these good people still show up, do their job to the best of their ability, & often with a friendly smile.
Now that the last 4-year agreement is up, Canada Post is feeling greedy. Consider: letter-carrying postmen or postwomen make about $50k a year, on average. As of 2008, the CEO makes nearly half a million dollars, with allowances for a 33% bonus. That works out to potentially more than double what the Prime Minister of Canada makes in a year. And this pay rate has almost certainly risen: unfortunately, the actual figures have to be obtained
through an Access to Information request...which are processed at a speed comparable to molasses in winter
(& with as much cooperation & transparency as you'd expect from someone you have to legally force to tell you something...i.e. very little).
From 2005
through mid 2010, Moya Greene was the CEO of Canada Post. She now has a job with the UK's Royal Mail, with a
"basic salary" of £500,000. That's $791,000 Canadian. Obscene. And it's fat cats like this, with record profits for the company in one hand, who want to squeeze the lowly workers & their families ever more tightly with the other. I think that so far, the union & its members are being far more gracious & patient towards Canada Post than it deserves.
If a strike happens,
Canada Post is directly to blame -
not your local postman or postwoman.
Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!
