Canada Post union readies members for possible strike

along time ago mail carriers weren't complaining all that much they all looked happy always having a good word for the ones they delivered mail too. what happen too that

You'll find sympathy in the dictionary between sh*t and syphillis and that's where my sympathy lies for a corporation whose employees earn $22/hour starting out BUT still feel the need to steal mail from your mailbox... happened to me not once but twice this past Christmas and when I inquired about it, not a thing was done about it. The "service" is over priced and it sucks.

Lots of unemployed people in this country and our wonderful postal service whines and complains about their wages... you poor things, underpaid. My heart breaks for you... NOT !!!

People at my factory make between 12.75 & 16.00 an hour.

1) Here's a scenario that happened two months ago. I just worked 5 day shifts 6am-6pm. Mon-Fri. Friday afternoon at 5 PM, my boss comes to our workstation and tells my crew that we have to come in Saturday NIGHT shift 6PM-6AM. If I don't do it I can be fired or punished. A couple of the guys opted not to come in and one was let go, descent worker 6 years with the company. Maybe missed a a couple days a year, father of two.

2) If I call in sick, my employer uses a vacation day AND demands that I bring in a
doctors note. If I don't bring in a doctors note for ONE day I can be fired and if we avoid that we are punished with poor shifts and jobs. (see a pattern?)

3) If I chose to use my cellphone or Ipod in the lunchroom/office ON MY BREAK and my employer finds me using it I can be fired on the spot.

4) My employer refuses to heat our work area in the winter time and refuses to put in an AC unit for cooling in the summertime. We are not allowed to take break away from our work area because our machines run 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Just for your info the building is not insulated/walls are metal/tin and to give you an idea its like being in a meat locker all winter.

5) We are forced to lift packages in the 80-110 lb range on a daily basis. If we refuse we get sent home that day and we miss out on our next Sunday dayshift (which is 12 hrs of double time) and end up getting stuck with crummy jobs with crappy hours for a month as punishment.

6) The employer refuses to listen to health and safety concerns. IE: Unsafe ladders that we have to use to do our jobs.

7) We have to submit to a medical every year of a company hired doctor/nurse. If we don't guess what? Termination. They do provide ok benefits but its hardly enough.

Your hours worked last year based on a 40 hour work week - 2080 hours
My hours last year based on 48-72 hour (forced) work weeks - 3018 hours.

Your total gross - $46, 800 (based on $22.50 * 40 hr week * 52 weeks)
My Total gross $48,828 ($14.25 an hr)

I worked 938 hours MORE than you did last year!!!

Which means you would have to work 117.25 DAYS at 8 hours a day more per year if you put in the hours that I HAVE to put in.

Anyone working for the postal service want to swap jobs?

I'll trade you in a heartbeat. Let me know!

The most expensive service in the developed world, and a poor one at that. I stopped ebaying, because who wants to pay more for postage than for the little collectible they're buying? Compared to US prices and service, ours are awful.

Not sure where the problem lies, but Canadian postal services rank amongst the worst in the world. Delivery times are outrageous and services too expensive.

I use Canada Post almost every day to ship packages to customers. As far as on time, they are equally as efficient as using a courier at 1/2 the price of the courier companys. The amount of missing or damaged packages we have experienced with CP is by far compensated by not having to pay the higher prices of couriers over the long term. I will absolutely NOT use a courier service unless I have no other choice

But...., CP is ponderously slow by comparison to USPS in America and more expensive by 1/2.
CP does not have any programs in place to accommodate business customers even though parcel mail is increasing and letter mail is decreasing. They need to extend hours to the business communtity so that a business can operate until days end before having to run to the post office for same day shipping. As it is today, we have to cut our day off at 3:30 to run to the PO to have things sent out that day.
They should also be moving mail 6 days a week instead of 5. Our world wants things faster and cheaper, not slower and more expensive, but faster and more expensive would still be acceptable to my customers.
If CP lowered their prices and set up systems to move things faster then they would create employement by drawing parcel cartage from expensive couriers.

The union doesn't want any of these changes. They are trying to protect what they have even though they must see that the end is coming for the service they are trying to protect.

Go on strike! I don't care! After I saw the condition of a of a CP delivered package with FRAGILE & HANDLE WITH CARE stickers on it show up at my door, I absolutely refuse to be held hostage by the unions that represent your abusive service. The parcel in question contained a (used to be) collector's item for my wife's birthday. It looked as though the employees used it for football practice during their lunch break. I took it in to a main postal outlet & not only did they refuse to accept any of the responsibility for the damage, but they wouldn't send it back to the sender unless I paid them $65 for the shipping. I walked away! FOREVER! A sorry & an 800 number doesn't cut it! Canada Post can kiss the fattest part of my Great Canadian! Your unionized ego has you complacently thinking that you can't be touched....and you won't be, by even one thin dime out of my pocket for the rest of my days. Since then, I've switched all my household bills to paperless. I don't care if I have to use smoke signals! Your corporation is as good as dead to me!

THE WEEKEND....brought to you by UNIONS lol!! Anyway.......why has Canada become a place where not just employers want to keep you down and hungry, but now all lower middle, middle and upper middle class people want to keep each other down too? Why is it every time I read about employers trying to take away from employees.......all the comments are against the workers and how easy their job is! Could it be jealousy, or maybe ignorance.....Ill tell you though, whatever it is, the Employers just love it, it gives them the power to divide and conquer! For Eg. Canada Post made 50 million last year, hmmmm not to shabby, but hey, if they trim this new contract for the posties they could make 60 million this year, hell why not all the the postal workers peers as far as earnings go, are on the Companies side! LoL Id like to say that all you morons with negative comments about your fellow common man or woman doing better for themselves and their family, need to really sit down and mull things over! How much do you think the top brass makes at say Canada Post......are they overpaid? Same with all the top guys at GM and Chryslers, are they overpaid? Let me guess....its the Union line workers (lowest paid on the totem pole) who caused these mighty companies to go bankrupt!!?? LoL get your heads out of your arses and back your fellow man......because the gap between the Super rich and the poor is getting bigger every year!!

Let's use a soldier as a basic benchmark. For you he works 24/7, carries 100lbs of gear everywhere cross country and has the privilege of being shot at. If you make more than a soldier/have better benefits, your job is either tougher than a soldier, or you have a good rate of pay & benefits.

I care about the postal unions dilemma, but you are going the way of the dinosaurs and will be obsolete in the near future.

Excessive workload, my ass! With electronic media taking over from paper, it sounds more like a desperate ploy to keep themselves employed. A letter carrier makes $22 an hour plus benefits and is still bitching! A lot of people can only dream about making that kind of money. I once had a letter take 22 days to travel from Victoria to New Westminster and when I contacted their "customer service" to find out why, nobody had an answer - what a surprise. Yet I had a letter from England arrive on my desk at work in 24 hours... And don't bother giving me that sob story about how they work in inclement weather, get chased by dogs, etc. Tough noogies - my tax dollars are paying your salary, so quit your whining and just do your damn job!

I deal with postal workers every day. I have never been treated badly but I have found they do not live in the real world. The demands they want are not within todays job descriptions for the rest of us. Some say, there is overpayment for what they do, well they deal with irate customers, they go out in 2 feet of snow to walk their routes, on the other hand, what qualifications consist of a job that a full time postal delivery carrier makes $52,000 a year. Well, they filled out a job application and got the spelling right. I see them retiring at 50-55-58 and they ask when do you retire, I say 65 like the rest of the world if I can afford it. I have seen union "brothers and sisters" claw over each other for some promotions. Makes you start to not believe this union solidarity thing. Do the union brothers and sisters buy Canadian to keep their other union workers in a job, hell no, they buy Chinese crap. We all need protection in our jobs, I have no pat answer, but unions are total hypocrisy. Look at the auto unions in recent years, 1/3 of the workers got what they wanted, the others are OUT OF A JOB...Auto workers, $36.00 and hour for putting 8 bolts in a pick up bed on an assembly line... come on... at least my server always asks me "fries with that burger" and they probably have a Bachelors of Art degree.. Me, I e-mail, I get my bills online, the post office could go out of business and it would not affect me. At least the unwanted flyers would stop...

For any postal worker unhappy with their pay and benefits, try doing the job of a soldier for his/her pay. 24/7 and the privilege of being shot at. For less pay and less benefits.

"inadequate staffing, excessive workload"?? Wow!!.....
I frequently use their Expedited Service for my business. Whenever I go to this one on Austin in Coquitlam, there'll almost always be 3 persons at the counter. There'll be an older very chatty guy with 2 lady attendants. That older chap will measure up my package, making jokes and chatting all the time, one lady will key in the particulars into the computer, and the 3rd lady attendant will retrieve the sticky labels from the printer and stick them onto my package. THREE PERSONS to do one little job! OMG - Understaff and Excessive workload, MY ASS! GET REAL people - Why do they always get us by our balls and the union will concede to their demands??

Shitcan this useless branch of money sucking government. It had its role in 1867 to 1990, but it's over now. Get rid of it.

I gather the people who disagree with some of the comments on here must be postal workers or related to them. So let me ask those people why did it take a letter to get from Thunder bay to Kenaston Sask. 2 weeks. ? And how would you feel that because of that delay by Canada Post it cost me and my partners $20,000.00 And you think your going to get supportfrom the average Canadian dream on. Your done guys no one needs you as much as they use to...ciao

We've got one of the worst and most expensive mail services in the world. Whatever the agreement is I hope it addresses these problems.

Costs enough right now too.. i don't send as many letters out, and never any parcels if i can help it.. They should be responsible for lost articles and packages to, and not make customers pay insurances to ensure its saftely delivery throgh the mail.

CUPW and all public service unions are a thing of the past.

Fire the union, problem solved.

Lock them out and leave them out. Canada Post is a joke anyway. These clowns are making enough money already. Thousands of Canadians only wish they made the money these people are making. I am sick and tired being blackmailed by these UNIONS...they are the biggest crooks in the world. They are only interested in filling their own pockets. The mayor is right get rid of these unions, they are nothing but trouble.
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