Reader feedback
23 and a half hours feedback
Susan’s Note: The mystery cure I mentioned last week is to cover yourself in cottage cheese and lie in a bath of cucumber slices for half an hour each day. Just joking. The real cure is to walk for half an hour a day. This practice has been known to save lives. If you can’t walk, try to get out and breathe fresh air for 30 minutes a day.
Christy Boyd, a reporter at The Pilot in Lewisporte, writes: “I am … the mother of a 9-year-old boy and 7-year-old twin girls. I check out the Telegram every day … and this morning I read your column.
I love it! Because it is so true. Tonight as I get my kids into bed, one of whom is sick with a throat infection, I am going to check out the link. Thanks for the smile this morning.”
Mail carrier feedback
J, a once proud letter carrier in Winnipeg who is ashamed at what his workplace has become, writes: “Bravo. As a 20-year-plus employee of Canada Post I have seen firsthand the decline of customer service and working conditions.
Canada Post’s modern post is a failure. … I’ve seen brothers and sisters in tears due to the new system. … Funny that — our sort times are the same as the old system, but the routes have almost doubled. How is that possible? Canada Post also reported carriers in Winnipeg did not deliver when the temperatures were –41. Upwards of 10,000 homes go without delivery, cold or not, weekly since modern post was introduced here. … Sort times haven’t, for the most part, changed; yet (there are) more homes plus parcels to deliver. We used to have UPS deliver parcels, now it’s up to the carriers. Feels like Canada Post with the help of the Harper government is either trying to destroy the post office, or make the job so hard the turnover rate will guarantee they will not have to worry about paying out a pension.
I’ve watched some of the most senior carriers struggle — most have doctors’ notes saying they can only work eight hours. Canada Post takes half the walk off to make sure they stay within the time line. Hmmm.
Watch casuals and temp employees struggle on eight-hour routes. Most take 10-12 hours to complete and then they are too scared to claim overtime as this is a no-no. Not if you want to get a permanent position … sad. Working in the dark in the murder capital of Canada is stressful. You go up to a house in the north end that is full of gang members with a headlamp on (hoping) they don’t mistake you for cops and shoot through the door.”
Joe Rider, who describes himself as 36 years walking in Toronto, writes: “Three cheers for helping spread the ( factual) account of the letter carriers plight. … We think that Canadians deserve better service than what CPC has given them. We have been sold a bad, inefficient, unsafe system by the departed Moya Green. Yup, the once proud carrier has gone replaced by the now overworked ill-treated tired mule.”