'The pending strike by postal workers should spell the end of the service as we know it'
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
210.26674
Summary
Postal workers in Canada are on strike and the unions are demanding a raise of 11.5% along with protection against technology and other modernizing services. The strike has the potential to be the beginning of the end of Canada Post as we know it.
Transcript
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you know one of my favorite characters from seinfeld in the past was newman and part of
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it was because he hit right home on what your typical lazy entitled postie was he really
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knocked it out of the park with that stereotypes don't come from nowhere guys the real reason he
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was i mean he was a fantastic actor uh mr knight and uh because it just people could smell that
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glimmer of truth and in canada our posties are a little better and canada post as we know it right
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now can't be saved this has been actually been a reality for decades pretty much since the fax
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machine came out even if delusional unions won't accept it and calo politicians won't deal with it
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the canada this crown corporation lost five billion no three billion dollars since 2018 and the losses
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are growing by the year home delivery by letter mail used to be their prime service that service peaked
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in 2006 with 5.5 billion letters delivered in 2023 that number of letters had dropped to 2.2 billion
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and it's only going to continue to drop but people don't need letters delivered to their homes anymore
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email and electronic documents have replaced letter mail and it's only die-hard romantics and
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great-grandma avi sending her annual christmas checks to grandchildren who still correspond by mail
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and you know romance is lovely and great grandmothers are fantastic but it doesn't justify maintaining
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an obsolete service at a cost of billions of dollars in an astounding act of financial illiteracy and greed
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though the canada canadian union of postal workers they've served strike notice yeah the unions refused
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and offered an 11.5 raise and they're demanding large raises along with protections against
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technology it might take their jobs look unless canada post can somehow illegalize email and fax
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machines i'm not sure how these jobs are going to be protected it's time to call the cup w bluff let
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them strike go for it guys it's only going to speed the inevitable process of winding down canada's
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national postal service anyways the postal workers will lose what little political capital they had in
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public support anyways because as usually they pick christmas and they're going to delay grandma's
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christmas checks and they're going to drive the few businesses still using antiquated postal services
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into modernizing their systems indeed even city governments are moving to alternative communication
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systems in anticipation of this strike civil civic bureaucracies are slow to change and they're
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often supportive of unions but the posties have pushed it too far municipal mail outs make up a large
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part of the dwindling mail going now and it's going to end they're not going to move back to canada
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post after the strike ends the inefficiencies within canada's bloated postal service they're
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myriad i mean to begin with there simply isn't enough need to have mail delivered five days a week
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most canadians can get by a service once maybe twice a week most of the mails these days is junk
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anyhow and we don't need it arriving in a timely manner and that junk mail is declining too because
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businesses are moving to more efficient electronic means of promotion and marketing all door-to-door home
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mail ended and delivery has to end it's ridiculous that money's still being spent to have a postal
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carrier walk to one-third of the homes in canada five days a week yeah the post realized this years
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ago and began moving services to centralized boxes but unfortunately in 2016 the union cut a deal with
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justin trudeau and they halted the conversion so a third of the country is still getting home delivery
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of mail postal carriers work short days with long pay they even have taxis delivering them to their
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postal walks in some cities so they don't have to suffer the indignity of riding a bus like the
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commoners let's face it being a postal worker is a good gig they're highly paid enjoy full benefits
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and a generous pension for what's really a relatively unskilled job if canada post was to cut two-thirds
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of the workforce you can rest assured the remaining third who are employed would suddenly discover work
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ethics and they'd be able to put in those 40-hour work weeks the rest of us get to enjoy if unions
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truly cared about workers what they would be negotiating for right now would be transitioning packages
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and job training for the postal workers who are going to be facing layoffs in the coming years
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unions rarely care about workers however and they know the canada post is speeding towards a fiscal
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wall they don't care the union heads just want to milk the company for as much in dues as they
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possibly can before the crash comes let the postal workers strike let them demonstrate to canadians
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just how little we actually need them and the environment will be ripe to restructure canada post
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and cut the service down to a tiny fraction of what it is i mean some remote regions still need
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subsidized delivery services and a trickle of letter mail service can still be provided to
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centralized postal stations private operators are already dominating the package delivery market
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and they'll fill the demand much more efficiently than a crown corporation ever could giving into
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the postal union that would be tacitly admitting the canada post is expecting another taxpayer bailout
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they're losing billions of the current model and they'd only lose billions more if they capitulate
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to the unions there's no use in continuing to keep this dying organization on life support like
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blockbuster video and home milk delivery the service isn't required any longer and we should be
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facilitating the natural evolution of this industry rather than trying to fight it anyway that's
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all we got going i'm not worried too much about them going on strike just be honest guys i don't
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really care you can't hold a sausage anymore too damn bad