Put postal wars on ho-ho-hold until after Christmas

It must come as bittersweet medicine to Canada Post’s unionized workers and corporation management that they’re not quite as irrelevant as popular wisdom would have us believe.

You must have heard the jokes in the months leading up to this current round of labour unrest with Canadian Union of Postal Workers staff staging rotating strikes across the country. As in, “Canada Post is on strike ... anyone noticed?”

Then there are the ones that question the corporation’s competence, as in: “I get the feeling that Canada Post couldn’t deliver bad news during the apocalypse ...”

Well, it turns out we do need and miss reliable postal service, especially at this time of year. Canada Post’s importance has certainly been reduced by technology and competition in the delivery sector, but when the mail gets jammed up over the holiday season, it doesn’t take long for our collective anxiety to ramp up.

So there’s some vindication and validation for postal workers and their employer. We do need you, even if we don’t like to admit it and don’t appreciate our usually reliable mail service.

Point taken. Now give us back our delivery service, at least until after the holiday season. Please.

The damage already done may not be huge, but it threatens to get a lot worse very soon if backlogged delivery isn’t relieved.

Consider small businesses and entrepreneurs who rely on the postal service to deliver to customers. Consider nonprofit organizations, for whom December is a month when they typically get a large share of annual donations — delivered by post, of course. Consider the plight of anyone who can’t afford to play with the big boys like Amazon who handle their own deliveries.

Consider, too, the plight of Canadians who just want their Christmas messages, letters and cards to get to far-flung family and friends in time for Dec. 25. Yes, there’s the internet and there’s social media, but not everyone can or chooses to employ them.

Let’s put it this way: There’s something decidedly Scrooge-like about disrupting communication at this time of year, when that contact can be more important than ever. That’s why the federal government has announced its intention to order workers back to work if the holiday disruption remains in place.

It’s probably why the corporation asked its unionized workers to pull back on job action over the holidays. The union refused, no doubt recognizing that paralyzing postal service in January wouldn’t have the same impact as in December.

There’s posturing and strategy involved in every move by the Crown corporation and its union. Fair enough. But the federal government is right to put the welfare of Canadians overall above the rights of the company and union. Labour Minister Patty Hajdu, announcing the legislation yesterday, put it this way to Canadian Press:

“We’ve given notice to the House, we are extremely serious, (but) I really don’t want to have to use back-to-work legislation. But having said that, this is a really busy time of year, people are relying on Canada Post to deliver packages, small and medium-size businesses are relying on Canada Post to have a profitable season and our economy needs Canada Post to be able to function in a smooth way.”

All accurate, which means the government shouldn’t delay. If there’s no progress within the next day or so, get the legislation on the table and let’s give Canadians the reliable mail service they need and deserve, at least through Christmas.