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Canada Post workers on nationwide strike after government demands reforms (www.cbc.ca)

submitted 1 week ago by ValueSubtracted@startrek.website to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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[-] Whitebrow@lemmy.world 67 points 1 week ago

Good. Eliminating all door to door deliveries is not the answer and whoever came up with that rationale needs to removed immediately.

And again, for the people in the back: Canada post is a service. It doesn’t make money. It costs money. Same way public healthcare does.

Why are they trying to spin it as a business that needs to generate profit or undertake cost cutting measures to exist and continue providing services that are still being widely used?

[-] deltapi@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Because the service you mention is paid for with postage, not taxes. Their shortfall was 841 million last year. Who is supposed to pay for that?
I have direct to door delivery right now. Every day I get flyers for assholes that want to buy my house for pennies on the dollar, and actual mail maybe twice a week.
Why are we paying for delivery the other 3 days?
The simple reality is that daily direct to door delivery isn't necessary any more, and if I had to go for a 5 minute walk to collect my mail 3 times a week, I'd be fine with that.

[-] 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 week ago

Then charge more for the junk mail?

why do people continually accept all of our public services getting shittier and shittier every year?

i'm not here to debate the corporate structure of canada post... whether it is a crown corp, or an arms length private corp, or whatever....

It's a vital public service for all citizens... period. Make it work... for everyone...

Your particular use case is just one of thousands... actually, i agree with you. I technically dont need monday-friday service... but some others do and thats fine

[-] deltapi@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Here's the thing, right now for my 2-3 days of mail delivery per week, the postal service employee walks by my house every day.
The flyers that get dropped off on non mail days could just as easily be dropped off on the other 2-3 days instead.
This means that effectively for every piece of mail delivered to my house the 40-60% of the 'last mile' part of the postage costs are wasted on extra unneeded trips to/past my door.
For normal mail delivery we already have 5-10 day delivery timeframes. Anyone who accepts that variability doesn't need daily delivery, and those that do need that clockwork delivery are using services like UPS or FedEx.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

It is not 'vital'.

[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

Unless the government is going to make Internet access an essential service and make sure all homes have access the same way they have access to electricity and water...

Yes, it is vital that everyone have access to mail.

[-] Feyr@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

One thing the USPS does well is sending me an email every morning with a picture of every mail piece that's going to be delivered that day. Then I can decide if it's worth checking the mailbox

I can go weeks without checking it

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

I haven't mailed a letter in decades, and a guy in cute shorts just brings me junk mail every day.

Society has evolved. There are no more milkmen or ice deliveries any more either.

[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

Their shortfall was 841 million last year. Who is supposed to pay for that?

Taxes. It's a government service.
The Department of National Defence had a shortfall of $28.8 billion last year, who is supposed to pay for that?

The 2024 Federal budget had a revenue of 498 billion. The Canada Post "shortfall" was less than 0.2% of the budget.

[-] deltapi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I don't see why it should be subsidized with taxes.
Deutsche Post manages to successfully keep mail flowing as an independent self funded service, why can't Canada Post?
The simple fact of the matter is that the union is unwilling to budge on finding ways to improve efficiency because the more employees they have paying dues, the more they get paid.
If this was a private company, they'd be willing to work it out because they'd be afraid of the business folding, but here they think the well runs not just deep, but infinitely so.

[-] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

If it was a private company, they wouldn't be obligated to serve every Canadian, no matter where they are.

Canada Post is a public service and should be treated as such.

[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

I don't see why it should be subsidized with taxes.

I don't see why 0.2% of the annual budget should be a focus of cost concerns. The total expenditure in the 2024 Federal budget was $538 billion dollars. If we subtract the cost of Canada Post from that it would be... About $538 billion dollars.

If this was a private company, they'd be willing to work it out because they'd be afraid of the business folding

That goes for the business refusing to negotiate with the union. If it was a private company they wouldn't have the option of waiting until the government forces everyone back to work without an agreement.

[-] LeFantome@programming.dev 6 points 1 week ago

You don’t have to spin it as a business to say that evolving it to reflect reality makes sense. It is not exactly radical to say everybody should get the same level of service that the majority of us get today.

Fewer than 25% of Canadians have door to door delivery. Almost everybody gets delivery to a private mailbox very close to their house. Door to door delivery is down to under 4 million addresses. This is a 10 year plan to finish that transition. Not exactly aggressive.

You can still get delivery to your door if you are disabled.

Regardless of if it is a a business or an essential service, we should be honest about it. We used to send 5 times as much mail when we were fewer people. Why do we have to ignore that?

If 75% of us (like me) are totally fine with super mailboxes, I think the rest can handle it. I know that I could get away with delivery 3 times a week as well. In 2030, how time sensitive is something coming through regular mail. Let’s be real. I could wait one more day.

[-] Whitebrow@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I agree with your notion of “evolving it” to fit the needs and requirements of today however I don’t agree with your other points.

Their plan is to remove door to door entirely, not just limit it to 3 days (which, I wouldn't have any major qualms about at this time if that was the endgame, which it isn’t)

However I shouldn’t need to be disabled to receive this basic level of service, nor do I want to hobble over to the mailbox or postal office that’s “very close to my house” because the current one is a 15 minute walk on a good day, and a 35 minute trudge through half snow covered roads on a bad one. And if we’re going with this, hypothetically, how would I even know I have any mail? Do I get a call? Do I get a notice at my door? Do I just have to show up every so often and check?

If it’s option 1, I can assure you that my phone’s functions are set by default to filter and drop any unknown calls. So that’s far from an optimal approach.

If it’s option 3, I will not be randomly dropping by the postal office or box because currently nowhere near (or on) any common route that I take, and I have no reason to do a random cold check especially if I work primarily from home

And if it’s option 2, you’re already here to deliver my notice, might as well bring my mail instead.

Besides the above outlined items, I’m not going to touch the time sensitive items argument because Canada post handles more than just mail, they also handle biological deliveries, medicine, restricted substances, stuff like live bees, all your legal documents, subpoenas, medical, etc. plus a bunch of other services that I’m probably forgetting.

[-] xthexder@l.sw0.com 2 points 1 week ago

Community mailboxes are almost always a block away or less. Everywhere I've lived in the last 10 years I've just had to cross the street to check the mail. There's no 15 minute walk...

If you're used to having your mail right at your door, then having to go check it is a little extra hassle, but really not terrible. I check mine like once or twice a week.

Maybe Canada Post could implement something like USPS has: They'll send you an email summary of pictures of the mail arriving each day.

[-] ThatOrangeBird@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

What if you live in a very rural place? I shouldn't have to drive to retrieve my mail which would surely happen as there aren't enough houses nearby to warrant it being a community box location. I'd likely make sure I receive nothing via Canada Post anymore as much as possible, and they can fill some community box with junk mail until there's no more room.

[-] xthexder@l.sw0.com 1 points 1 week ago

My grandparents live on a farm in rural Canada and have never gotten delivery to their door. They have a PO box at the nearest town which is a 30 minute drive away. They can't even get anything shipped by a courier because non will deliver to a PO box or outside of town. As far as I know it's always worked this way, and nothing is changing there.