City postal workers join colleagues on strike
By Lethbridge Herald on November 15, 2024.
A striking member of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers holds up a sign on Friday outside the downtown post office.
Herald photo by Al BeeberAl Beeber – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
More than 130 local postal workers joined their colleagues across Canada on the picket line on Friday as Canada Post went on strike Friday.
Numerous postal workers gathered outside the downtown post office on Friday, some marching around the block carrying picket signs.
Cole Morgan, chief shop steward of Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 770, said Friday morning the union was hoping “the corporation would have come with a serious offer. Unfortunately that hasn’t happened as of yet so we’ve kind of been put to the point where we were forced to initiate strike activity as they threatened to take away our rights and our benefits,” said Morgan.
About 55,000 postal workers are involved in the strike.
“We couldn’t have our employees going in under those conditions,” Morgan added.
The main points of contention between CUPW and Canada Post, said Morgan, include the corporation “is trying to implement significant changes to our work environment, reducing our health and safety, they want to initiate separate sort and delivery of the mail – they’ve been doing that in several facilities,” he said.
Presently, letter carriers come into the workplace, takes items for their area to sort and organize individually before heading out to deliver the mail, he said.
“They’ve got the accountability for knowing what they have and where they’ve got it and as they deliver it, they’re less able to make mistakes because they know what they’ve got,” said Morgan.
With a separate and delivery system, a different individual sorts the mail then others deliver it.
This creates the issue of carriers not necessarily knowing what they are carrying but also that the carriers are expected to be out on the job longer, he said, with carriers already walking 20 kilometres a day on average.
“Longer on the street is definitely going to increase our likelihood or potential for injuries. Health and safety is not appearing to be on the top priority of the corporation at time,” he added.
Lethbridge is still foot facilities for the majority of routes and “initiating these changes puts us out on the street longer, later into the evenings” and safety risks will dramatically increase come winter, Morgan said.
Pay is also a concern given inflation rates in recent years, he said.
“We accepted a contract extension in 2022 for two years at two per cent and inflation was already at six per cent at that point so we’re just looking to catch up,” the shop steward said.
“The cost of groceries has gone up an average of 20 per cent and we’re having a hard time feeding our families.”
Postal workers, said Morgan, kept working during the COVID pandemic delivering mail “and the thanks for that was to not even give us a realistic offer. Unfortunately, we’ve been forced into this position. If the corporation gave us a serious offer, I’m sure our membership would be more than happy to entertain voting on that,” said Morgan.
Canada Post in a statement on its website Friday said it and the union have agreed to continue “ the delivery of socio-economic cheques during any upcoming labour disruption, for eligible and participating government organizations. The agreement ensures government financial assistance delivered by mail will reach seniors and other Canadians who rely on it.”
Socio-economic cheques will be delivered on Nov. 20.
CUPW on its website said workers “made the difficult decision to strike” after what it called a year of bargaining with little progress.
“Canada Post had the opportunity to prevent this strike, but it has refused to negotiate real solutions to the issues postal workers face every day. Instead, Canada Post left us no choice when it threatened to change our working conditions and leave our members exposed to layoffs.”
Canada’s labour minister Steven MacKinnon said in Montreal Friday that the federal government is focused on negotiating an end to the strike but described the negotiations as “extremely difficult.”
The Interfaith Food Bank said in a release on Friday that it has volunteers stuffing 3,500 envelopes in hopes of generating the financial support needed for its annual Christmas campaign but its annual newsletter will be delayed or not received at all if the strike isn’t resolved shortly.
“We would be grateful for the opportunity to speak to the impact of the strike on our already desperate situation. Food Banks across the country have been struggling all year with keeping up with increased cries for help from community members. We are now crying too, as the cost of keeping up with the demand has created enormous strain on our already tight resources, and the Christmas campaign is our largest fundraiser, that will determine the support we’ll be able to provide to the community in 2025,” said Danielle McIntyre in the release.
The food bank is encouraging people give online as much as possible or drop by with their donations Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m.
The strike will have an impact on Canadians coast to coast including those who receive newspaper subscriptions by mail.
For example subscribers of weekly newspapers in the Alberta Newspaper Group get their papers delivered by mail and now arrangements are being made for those in area communities to pick them up at newspaper offices in communities including Coaldale, Taber and Bow Island.
The Alberta government announced it is taking steps to ensure mail continues to flow between residents and the government.
Starting Tuesday, mail can be accepted from Albertans at designated Alberta government offices to ensure it reaches the proper destination. No stamps will be required.
In Lethbridge, mail will be accepted at the Provincial Building located at 200 5 Ave. S.
Albertans who receive mail from the province will get a notification by phone or email saying where and when they can pick up or drop off mail. Coaldale’s drop-off is the RCMP detachment at 705 19 A Ave., Cardston’s is at the Provincial Building at 576 Main Street, Fort Macleod’s is at the Fort Macleod Healthcare Centre, and Taber’s is at the Provincial Building, 5011 49 Ave. Mail can also be dropped off at Provincial buildings in Pincher Creek, Blairmore and Claresholm.
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