Canada Post still relevant to small businesses
People may longer rely on Canada Post to deliver their daily correspondence but it naïve to think that the Crown Corporation has become irrelevant.
Many individuals and small businesses rely on the service, from the most vulnerable who receive social services, to the most vulnerable businesses that use it to sip their product.
The Creemore Echo falls into the latter category. We use Canada Post to deliver this newspaper every Friday, along with messages from our advertisers.
Canada Post, like newspapers, is a victim of the digital age.
It has adapted by developing the business of delivering online shopping packages contributing to a $44-million profit before tax in the first quarter of 2016, compared to a profit before tax of $24 million in the same period the year before.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers, both rural and urban, have voted overwhelmingly to strike in an effort to protect pensions and to improve wages for rural carriers.
So even though the possibility of not getting our newspaper into our readers’ mailboxes scares the pants off of us, we fully support the mail carriers in their effort to make sure they have good pay now and a stable retirement.
Too common is it for companies, Crown Corporations or not, to move from full-time to contract employment, reduce wages and change the terms of pensions.
Canada Post says it cannot afford to concede to the union’s demands, so compromise is needed and always expected at the bargaining table.
On Wednesday, we learned Canada Post agreed to voluntarily submit to binding arbitration as an opportunity for both parties to reach an acceptable resolution at the urging of the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour.
We hope this labour dispute can be resolved fairly.
There has been much uncertainty here is The Echo office this week.
We have been wringing our hands with worry about how to manage if there is a strike, especially a prolonged strike. For us, like other small businesses, there is no other way that makes any fiscal sense to get the newspaper door-to-door.
If the situation goes sour next week and there is a lockout or a strike, please know that you can sign up for a free e-mail subscription for the duration of the service disruption and that we will be putting extra newspapers at local vendors in Creemore, Stayner, New Lowell and Nottawa.
As we go to press Thursday we expect that mail carriers will still be on the job Friday but the labour dispute is evolving quickly and with absolutely no communication from Canada Post directly to us as the customer.
