With Sunday night's Senate approval of the bill ordering locked-out Canada Post employees back to work and mandating a new contract with lower wage increases than the company's final offer, it's worth looking back at the media coverage and public discussion of the labour conflict.
Let's set aside, for a moment, the notion that Canada Post workers are simultaneously so irrelevant they should be chided for attempting to negotiate a good contract, and yet so essential that the government had to intervene to legislate them back to work.
In the public debate over the Canada Post labour dispute, I've been surprised at the sheer volume of misinformation flying around - even from media 'authorities' that are supposed to know better.
I should disclose at the outset that my wife works for Canada Post as one of the locked-out letter carriers. That makes me an interested party, but it also gives me something of an inside perspective on what's actually going on.
The first thing we need to do is squash the false information kicking around in letters to the editor, website comments and even some op-eds and editorials. Following are some important facts everyone should who wants to pontificate should first understand:
1. Canada Post is not taxpayer funded.
That's right: your taxes do not pay for Canada Post employees. The company is 100% funded from its own revenues in lettermail stamps, parcel delivery, direct marketing and so on. The wages and benefits that Canada Post employees are fighting to protect cost you nothing as a taxpayer.
2. Canada Post is a crown corporation.
The Post has not been a department of the government since the Canada Post Corporation Act was implemented in 1981. It operates at arm's length from the government but is subject to federal regulations around service levels, pricing and so on.
3. Canada Post is profitable.
Canada Post has turned a net profit for each of the past fifteen years. For the fiscal year ending in December 2009, the corporation reported a profit of $281 million and paid $38 million in taxes. Profits were up $191 million over the previous year, despite a 5 percent reduction in operational revenue.
4. Canada Post has one of the lowest stamp prices in the industrialized world.
Federal regulations cap lettermamil stamp price increases below the rate of inflation, so the real, inflation-adjusted price of a stamp tends to fall over time.
5. Employees do not start at seven weeks vacation.
When an employee is promoted to regular full time, generally after several years as a "casual" part time employee with no guaranteed hours, they get three weeks of vacation. Under the previous contract, employees do not reach seven weeks vacation until they have 28 years of employment.
6. The unionized employees were locked out.
After talks broke down, the union instituted rolling strikes to make a point without stopping mail delivery. It was Canada Post that locked the workers out and completely shut down mail operations.
7. The job is hard.
A lot of commentary in op-eds, letters to the editor and online discussion suggests that letter carriers are "lazy", "overpaid", "uneducated" and so on. However, the job itself is extremely difficult. It isn't the stroll-through-the-neighbourhood sinecure that many people seem to think it is, and it hasn't been for years.
Most routes in the lower city, for example, are around 15 kilometres in length and include hundreds of points of call. If a route has 500 houses and each house has four steps to the mailbox, that's 2,000 stairs up and down.
That much walking would be tiring enough on its own, but letter carriers have to do it while carrying 20-30 lbs. of mail as well.
8. Letter carriers will go on extended leave.
When you walk 15 kilometres a day, every day around the year, the likelihood of a serious injury approaches certainty. Between back injuries, hip and knee damage, slips, trips, falls, and dog attacks, it is all but inevitable that a letter carrier will be off work at some point.
By accumulating sick time, letter carriers can top up their short term disability payments so they continue to receive full pay during an extended leave.
It's also important to note that letter carriers do not get paid out for remaining sick time when they retire. Any time not used up is simply lost.
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Source: Raise the Hammer
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