Save Canada Post... Again
By Mike Palecek
Just over ten years ago, a major attack on the postal service was stopped by mass-action from postal workers and community supporters. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cuts at Canada Post went on to become one of the top-five ballot-box issues that led to the defeat of the Conservative government. The Save Canada Post campaign mobilized postal workers alongside community allies, employing a diverse range of tactics in an overall strategy aimed at eroding support for Conservative MPs in their own ridings. Postal workers and the people that depend on them organized town hall meetings, mass demonstrations, leaflet drops, petitions -- even civil disobedience. In the end, it cost Stephen Harper his government. Mark Carney may face the same fate.
The latest attacks launched against the postal service are very similar to Harper’s initiative. The government plans to end door-to-door delivery, close rural post offices, and privatize portions of the crown corporation. The plan, if successful, would see millions of Canadians lose service to their door, and millions more lose their local post office. It would also eliminate tens of thousands of living-wage jobs in communities across this country.
As long as Canada Post has existed as a crown corporation, it has been manufacturing crises to justify its agenda. This time is no different. Once again, we are told the sky is falling and the only solution is to cut services and jobs. While the bosses claim to have lost a billion dollars a year over the last four years, they do not mention that in this same period Canada Post launched a $4.5 billion dollar expansion, with heavy investment in infrastructure, a new vehicle fleet, buildings and machinery. Canada Post has doubled its parcel capacity in this space of time. What failing business spends billions of dollars to double their capacity? If this wasn’t the plan all along, these clowns would have been fired long ago.
Canada Post is not alone in the world. Every postal service has faced the same challenges that come along with the expansion of the internet and mass communication: fewer letters, more parcels. The rest of the world has somehow managed to carry on, while Canada Post management continues to scream like a petulant child.
There are, in fact, many solutions to the issues facing Canada Post. In most of the world, the post office also acts as a bank, bringing in revenue by providing additional services. In France, the post office offers a check-in service to look in on vulnerable people living alone. In some countries, the postal service simply operates at a loss; keeping shipping prices low is a way of subsidizing small business and stimulating the economy.
Postal workers have tremendous economic power, whether they realize it or not. This was proven last year, when just three weeks into a postal strike, the entire shipping industry in Canada shut down. Major delivery firms like Fedex and UPS had to stop accepting packages, because their networks were overloaded and breaking at the seams. Canada Post delivers over half the parcels in the country; there is simply no way to quickly fill the gap. A prolonged postal strike effectively shuts down online shopping. The economic impact of a disruption at Canada Post far outweighs the cost of the postal service, by any measure. Postal workers have the power to stop this plan, if they act collectively.
Mark Carney has made the mistake that every Prime Minister seems to make, without realizing the blow-back that will ensue: he’s picked a fight with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. Postal workers will rise to the challenge, as they always have. Defeating this plan will take community mobilization, mass job action, and targeted political pressure. By his own admission, the Minister responsible for Canada Post says most of his constituents receive mail at their door - he is knowingly voting against the interests of his own constituents. Liberal MPs across the country stand to lose their seats over this plan. Nobody elected them to cut services. Nobody elected them to close post offices. They have no mandate for this decision, and the people of this country should not accept it.