Western Standard - 'The pending strike by postal workers should spell the end of the service as we know it'

00:00:00.000 you know one of my favorite characters from seinfeld in the past was newman and part of

00:00:04.080 it was because he hit right home on what your typical lazy entitled postie was he really

00:00:08.800 knocked it out of the park with that stereotypes don't come from nowhere guys the real reason he

00:00:13.680 was i mean he was a fantastic actor uh mr knight and uh because it just people could smell that

00:00:19.200 glimmer of truth and in canada our posties are a little better and canada post as we know it right

00:00:24.240 now can't be saved this has been actually been a reality for decades pretty much since the fax

00:00:28.880 machine came out even if delusional unions won't accept it and calo politicians won't deal with it 0.89

00:00:34.640 the canada this crown corporation lost five billion no three billion dollars since 2018 and the losses

00:00:40.560 are growing by the year home delivery by letter mail used to be their prime service that service peaked

00:00:45.840 in 2006 with 5.5 billion letters delivered in 2023 that number of letters had dropped to 2.2 billion

00:00:52.560 and it's only going to continue to drop but people don't need letters delivered to their homes anymore

00:00:57.600 email and electronic documents have replaced letter mail and it's only die-hard romantics and

00:01:02.800 great-grandma avi sending her annual christmas checks to grandchildren who still correspond by mail

00:01:07.840 and you know romance is lovely and great grandmothers are fantastic but it doesn't justify maintaining

00:01:12.560 an obsolete service at a cost of billions of dollars in an astounding act of financial illiteracy and greed

00:01:18.240 though the canada canadian union of postal workers they've served strike notice yeah the unions refused

00:01:22.560 and offered an 11.5 raise and they're demanding large raises along with protections against

00:01:27.760 technology it might take their jobs look unless canada post can somehow illegalize email and fax

00:01:33.600 machines i'm not sure how these jobs are going to be protected it's time to call the cup w bluff let

00:01:38.960 them strike go for it guys it's only going to speed the inevitable process of winding down canada's

00:01:44.320 national postal service anyways the postal workers will lose what little political capital they had in

00:01:49.600 public support anyways because as usually they pick christmas and they're going to delay grandma's

00:01:53.680 christmas checks and they're going to drive the few businesses still using antiquated postal services

00:01:58.160 into modernizing their systems indeed even city governments are moving to alternative communication

00:02:03.280 systems in anticipation of this strike civil civic bureaucracies are slow to change and they're

00:02:08.400 often supportive of unions but the posties have pushed it too far municipal mail outs make up a large

00:02:13.520 part of the dwindling mail going now and it's going to end they're not going to move back to canada

00:02:17.600 post after the strike ends the inefficiencies within canada's bloated postal service they're

00:02:22.160 myriad i mean to begin with there simply isn't enough need to have mail delivered five days a week

00:02:27.040 most canadians can get by a service once maybe twice a week most of the mails these days is junk

00:02:31.600 anyhow and we don't need it arriving in a timely manner and that junk mail is declining too because

00:02:35.760 businesses are moving to more efficient electronic means of promotion and marketing all door-to-door home

00:02:41.680 mail ended and delivery has to end it's ridiculous that money's still being spent to have a postal

00:02:46.160 carrier walk to one-third of the homes in canada five days a week yeah the post realized this years

00:02:51.840 ago and began moving services to centralized boxes but unfortunately in 2016 the union cut a deal with

00:02:57.360 justin trudeau and they halted the conversion so a third of the country is still getting home delivery

00:03:02.160 of mail postal carriers work short days with long pay they even have taxis delivering them to their

00:03:08.400 postal walks in some cities so they don't have to suffer the indignity of riding a bus like the

00:03:12.320 commoners let's face it being a postal worker is a good gig they're highly paid enjoy full benefits

00:03:17.680 and a generous pension for what's really a relatively unskilled job if canada post was to cut two-thirds

00:03:23.040 of the workforce you can rest assured the remaining third who are employed would suddenly discover work

00:03:27.840 ethics and they'd be able to put in those 40-hour work weeks the rest of us get to enjoy if unions 0.91

00:03:32.400 truly cared about workers what they would be negotiating for right now would be transitioning packages

00:03:36.960 and job training for the postal workers who are going to be facing layoffs in the coming years

00:03:40.320 unions rarely care about workers however and they know the canada post is speeding towards a fiscal

00:03:45.760 wall they don't care the union heads just want to milk the company for as much in dues as they

00:03:49.920 possibly can before the crash comes let the postal workers strike let them demonstrate to canadians

00:03:55.120 just how little we actually need them and the environment will be ripe to restructure canada post

00:03:59.520 and cut the service down to a tiny fraction of what it is i mean some remote regions still need

00:04:03.360 subsidized delivery services and a trickle of letter mail service can still be provided to

00:04:08.000 centralized postal stations private operators are already dominating the package delivery market

00:04:12.640 and they'll fill the demand much more efficiently than a crown corporation ever could giving into

00:04:16.800 the postal union that would be tacitly admitting the canada post is expecting another taxpayer bailout

00:04:22.960 they're losing billions of the current model and they'd only lose billions more if they capitulate

00:04:26.720 to the unions there's no use in continuing to keep this dying organization on life support like

00:04:31.600 blockbuster video and home milk delivery the service isn't required any longer and we should be

00:04:35.920 facilitating the natural evolution of this industry rather than trying to fight it anyway that's

00:04:41.120 all we got going i'm not worried too much about them going on strike just be honest guys i don't

00:04:44.560 really care you can't hold a sausage anymore too damn bad 0.80

Western Standard - November 14, 2024

'The pending strike by postal workers should spell the end of the service as we know it'

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