Postal workers are living in the past

It may be telling that a potential strike by workers at Canada Post would begin this Saturday, July 2, in the middle of the Canada Day long weekend. Since there will be no mail delivery over the three- day weekend anyway, it seems safe to predict that Canadians would be unlikely to notice anything different.

Indifference would be an appropriate response, given the apparent inability of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers ( CUPW) to notice that the world has changed. It’s not 1974 out there anymore, Canadians aren’t tied to the mailbox the way they once were and the last thing union bosses should want to do is draw attention to how irrelevant they have become. If the strike goes ahead, they may come to regret it.

It’s bad enough that CUPW doesn’t recognize how fundamentally the Internet has changed their business. Instead of seeking a more nimble model to compete under new circumstances, the union wants Canada Post to revive postal banking, a dated idea that was phased out in 1968. It sees banking as a means of maintaining jobs at a time when email and other technologies are steadily eroding demand for delivery services. Rather than increase the Crown corporation’s ability to compete with swifter and more convenient rivals, CUPW hopes to turn back the clock almost 50 years.

That sentiment pervades the union’s position. Since Canada Post was once a powerful monopoly that could demand privileged treatment for its workers at the public’s expense, CUPW sees no reason why the situation should be any different today. It opposes a proposal by Canada Post to put new employees on a defined contribution pension plan of the sort that is now common in the private sector, for those lucky enough to have a pension at all. Even with a $ 6.2- billion hole in its pension fund, Canada Post is willing to continue with the richer defined benefits plan for those who already qualify, but would put new hires on the less expensive plan.

The union is opposed. It has issued a lengthy list of other demands, including pay increases above inflation, equal pay and benefits for rural and suburban carriers to those in urban areas, job security for its 50,000 members, a ban on contracting out, the re- introduction of the money- losing door- to-door service, and improved rights and benefits for temporary employees. The CUPW website notes that Canada Post wants to eliminate a five-minute paid “washing up time” for urban employees.

It is bizarre, to say the least, that the union and its members would expect public support for such an extended and unrealistic catalogue of proposals. Canada Post has struggled to stay afloat against the onslaught of new competition, and managed to post a profit of $ 63 million in 2015. Its viability depends on its ability to maintain that record, but a national strike threatens one of its most valuable remaining functions. According to Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton, t he corporation delivers two of every three parcels ordered online. A lengthy strike would be an irresistible opportunity for competitors. “People have options. So customers can go elsewhere to get their parcels delivered, and a strike would give them a huge reason to move away from Canada Post to somebody else,” said Hamilton.

Postal workers have mounted repeated strikes over the last 50 years, in the belief that by stopping the mail they could bring Canadians to their knees. The result has been generous salaries and benefits, well beyond the value of the service provided. Those days are gone, along with sideburns, bellbottoms, platform shoes and mullets. Canadians grumbled about such concessions at a time when they had little choice but to depend on the mail; now that they have no such need and they have no reason to remain tolerant of avaricious demands.

A postal strike would give Prime Minister Justin Trudeau an opportunity to demonstrate that the Liberals’ taste for generous spending programs does not extend to continued appeasement of high- handed unions and their demand for gold-plated contracts that private-sector workers could never hope to see. By allowing the Post Office to stand firm against unreasonable demands, they can prove that this government is capable of saying no when the situation requires it.

The union, meanwhile, would be far better to smarten up and start working to adapt to new circumstances, rather than try to turn the clock back to a time that is well past.