Teachers...post and police... all being told
NOT TO VOTE FOR HARPSTEIN
that's awesome!
During last year’s provincial election in Ontario, the unions representing the province’s teachers, nurses and police decided to play cute with leadership endorsements. They weren’t telling their members who to vote for, the associations’ heads claimed, but merely suggesting who they might vote against, leaving them to infer exactly how they should vote to service that goal. The message from each union to its members was nearly identical: then-Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak would freeze wages and cut pensions for teachers/nurses/police officers, which would put the province’s children/health/communities at risk. Don’t take the gamble, union leaders said; make sure Hudak doesn’t win by voting for a little someone called “Kathleen W.” No wait — that’s too obvious. Let’s go with “K. Wynne.”
As we get closer to the federal election in October, I assume we’ll see the same sort of wink-wink non-endorsements from federal public service unions. For now, however, we’ve only gotten so far as the who-not-to-vote for phase and — surprise! — it’s Stephen Harper, or so says the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. Union national president Mike Palecek told the Canadian Press that his members plan to follow the prime minister around the country as he campaigns to keep his job, reminding Canadians of the service cuts that have happened and will continue at Canada Post under Harper’s watch. And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat nor gloom of night shall slay couriers from the completion of this noble task.
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That is true, of course. Canada Post is already in the midst of phasing out door-to-door delivery for the one-third of Canadian households that still enjoy it, which is expected to save the corporation about $500 million per year. Canada Post will also eliminate between 6,000 to 8,000 jobs over the next five years, mostly through attrition, which will also contribute considerably to cost savings.
With some of these measures already underway, combined with a hike in stamp prices and increased parcel delivery, Canada Post managed to turn a record profit in 2014 — the first time it had returned to profitability since 2010. Those opposed to phasing out home mail delivery like to cite that fact as evidence that we don’t need to cut door-to-door delivery after all, but if anything, it shows the opposite: with the steep and continuous erosion of letter mail volumes — dropping 8.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year, for example, compared to the same period last year — the only way Canada Post can stay in the black is if it continues to cut its operating costs.
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That obligation will be true regardless of whether Stephen Harper is still prime minister after October 19, or whether the job is taken over by Tom Mulcair or Justin Trudeau. The main difference is that Mulcair has essentially promised to ignore the financial realities of the status quo and restore door-to-door mail delivery, while team Trudeau has vowed to “study” the issue further. Still, blaming Harper for the fact that people are using email more and paying bills online makes just about as much sense as blaming Louis St. Laurent for the shuttering of the Wartime Prices and Trade Board in 1951, six years after the end of Second World War. Things change.
Of course, that doesn’t seem to matter much to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which has vowed to continue its nationwide trek in protest of Stephen Harper. “We started out in St. John’s, Nfld. a month ago and we’ve been making our way across the country, trying to make sure that every single voter knows exactly who’s to blame for these cuts at Canada Post, and that’s Stephen Harper and the Conservative government,” Palecek told CBC news. Godspeed, gentle servants. May you only have good weather.
NOT TO VOTE FOR HARPSTEIN
that's awesome!
During last year’s provincial election in Ontario, the unions representing the province’s teachers, nurses and police decided to play cute with leadership endorsements. They weren’t telling their members who to vote for, the associations’ heads claimed, but merely suggesting who they might vote against, leaving them to infer exactly how they should vote to service that goal. The message from each union to its members was nearly identical: then-Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak would freeze wages and cut pensions for teachers/nurses/police officers, which would put the province’s children/health/communities at risk. Don’t take the gamble, union leaders said; make sure Hudak doesn’t win by voting for a little someone called “Kathleen W.” No wait — that’s too obvious. Let’s go with “K. Wynne.”
As we get closer to the federal election in October, I assume we’ll see the same sort of wink-wink non-endorsements from federal public service unions. For now, however, we’ve only gotten so far as the who-not-to-vote for phase and — surprise! — it’s Stephen Harper, or so says the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. Union national president Mike Palecek told the Canadian Press that his members plan to follow the prime minister around the country as he campaigns to keep his job, reminding Canadians of the service cuts that have happened and will continue at Canada Post under Harper’s watch. And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat nor gloom of night shall slay couriers from the completion of this noble task.
Related
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- Letters: Save — but shrink — Canada Post
That is true, of course. Canada Post is already in the midst of phasing out door-to-door delivery for the one-third of Canadian households that still enjoy it, which is expected to save the corporation about $500 million per year. Canada Post will also eliminate between 6,000 to 8,000 jobs over the next five years, mostly through attrition, which will also contribute considerably to cost savings.
With some of these measures already underway, combined with a hike in stamp prices and increased parcel delivery, Canada Post managed to turn a record profit in 2014 — the first time it had returned to profitability since 2010. Those opposed to phasing out home mail delivery like to cite that fact as evidence that we don’t need to cut door-to-door delivery after all, but if anything, it shows the opposite: with the steep and continuous erosion of letter mail volumes — dropping 8.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year, for example, compared to the same period last year — the only way Canada Post can stay in the black is if it continues to cut its operating costs.
Read & Debate
Find Full Comment on FacebookThat obligation will be true regardless of whether Stephen Harper is still prime minister after October 19, or whether the job is taken over by Tom Mulcair or Justin Trudeau. The main difference is that Mulcair has essentially promised to ignore the financial realities of the status quo and restore door-to-door mail delivery, while team Trudeau has vowed to “study” the issue further. Still, blaming Harper for the fact that people are using email more and paying bills online makes just about as much sense as blaming Louis St. Laurent for the shuttering of the Wartime Prices and Trade Board in 1951, six years after the end of Second World War. Things change.
Of course, that doesn’t seem to matter much to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which has vowed to continue its nationwide trek in protest of Stephen Harper. “We started out in St. John’s, Nfld. a month ago and we’ve been making our way across the country, trying to make sure that every single voter knows exactly who’s to blame for these cuts at Canada Post, and that’s Stephen Harper and the Conservative government,” Palecek told CBC news. Godspeed, gentle servants. May you only have good weather.
