MPs must act now
Mail order industry is single major entity that maintains financial stability of Canada Post Corporation
The mail order industry in Canada is a $1 billion-plus contributor to the country’s economy. Furthermore, the mail order industry is the single major entity that maintains the financial stability of the Canada Post Corporation.
To borrow the phrase ‘biting the hand that feeds you,’ is an understatement in our current situation as Canada Post’s striking union apparently has little regard for the very customers that it serves and the long-term viability of its own employer.
We are now past the time that Parliament needs to act and further delays by the country’s elected MPs to legislate the union back to work will result in irreparable harm to many businesses and in fact will contribute to the failure of some.
For strictly political reasons, governments of any stripe are always hesitant to legislate unions back to work. That thought process however does not take into the account needs of Canadians but rather it is driven by the per- ception that it could do harm in certain ridings the next time union members visit the ballot box.
The situation that mail-order businesses and Canadians in general now find themselves comes following an entire year of conciliation, mediation and arbitration.
Unfortunately, the government’s response to this failed intervention is to simply re-appoint the special mediator and try, try again.
The problem with this approach is that each and every day there is delay in implementing back to work legislation, the back log of parcels and mail is growing at an alarming rate.
In some situations, it will take weeks to work through the accumulated mail that continues to grow by the hour.
As a province that is home to Canada’s largest mail order gardening business, it is time for the MPs of this province to convince their colleagues and Minister Hajdu that the time to act is now.