My dogs are upset about the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) strike. If our letter carrier doesn’t come every morning, who are they supposed to bark at?
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OK, they can still bark at kids walking to school, neighbours out for a stroll or the shadows of passing magpies.
And, of course, the Amazon drivers and other couriers are still arriving regularly. And that’s the point.
Very few Canadians are being inconvenienced by this CUPW strike because the mail isn’t vital any longer.
I bet CUPW old-timers still regale younger members with tales of how their walkouts brought the country to its knees. Business ground to a halt. Customers had to go down to utility offices and banks in person to pay their bills and mortgages.
A CUPW strike used to mean something, but no longer. I have twice conducted month-long tallies of the “mail” our letter carrier brings. Twelves years ago, just 11% of it was first-class mail. Four years ago, it was under 7%.
If the current strike goes on much longer, I’m sure a new service will pop up to deliver all the fast food coupons, real estate brochures and retail flyers that now make up the bulk of Canada Post’s business.
I’ve known each of our last three neighbourhood letter carriers by name. Had frequent chats on the doorstep with each of them. All have been delightful, conscientious people. But their union is foolhardy if it thinks it has the leverage needed to extract a 24% pay raise over four years from a Crown corporation that lost $748 million last year and has lost $3 billion since 2018 because the demand for its service is dying.
Yes, there are still businesses that rely on Canada Post to serve their mail order customers and charities that still mail their appeal letters and await return donations. As well, rural communities remain more dependent on Canada Post than urban ones.
But the business and organizations that still rely on the post office need to change their operating models.
According to Canada Post’s last annual report, in 2006 the average Canadian family received seven letters a week. Now it receives just two. And with the constant expansion of online billing and etransfers, that is expected to fall to one a week within the next three years.
Also, two decades ago the post office handled 69% of parcels. Today that is down to 23%.
A reader who runs a small business says she has to rely on Canada Post because other alternatives, such as private couriers, are too expensive. But why does she imagine Canada Post is so much cheaper? It pays the highest wages in the industry and has one of the lowest efficiency ratings. That combination does not lead to discount fares.
Canada Post gets away with unrealist delivery fees because it is using up its cash reserves to cover its growing annual deficits. It is cannibalizing its cash-on-hand to subsidize its rates. When its reserves are gone (likely next year), the subsidies will fall on taxpayers.
I know the Canadian Federation of Independent Business has calculated that small businesses are losing $76 million a day as a result of the strike. Soon the cumulative losses will be nearly $1 billion.
And charities claim to have lost as much as $250 million so far.
I feel badly for them, and for the letter carriers and other postal workers who could soon lose their jobs as the strike compels more and more people and companies to switch to alternative delivery services.
The federal government should privatize Canada Post or disband it. As currently configured, the post office no longer makes any sense.