It’s been over a month now, and the PSAC strike doesn’t seem to be making any progress. During the busiest time of the year for mail services, Canada Post is remaining dedicated to prompt service. So, do the group of PSAC members on strike have any hope for a resolution in the near future?
Power of striking postal workers is vanishing
This week, a judge granted Canada Post an injunction to stop striking inside workers from impeding the flow of mail to postal depots across B.C. That isn’t terribly newsworthy.
Companies often get injunctions when striking union members get a little too eager to slow down the work flow. Picketers often walk slowly in front of delivery entrances – and on rare occasions, actually stop work. So, injunctions during strikes are pretty run-of-the-mill. What is interesting about this event, is that hardly anyone has noticed that there’s a Canada Post strike happening.
Inside administrative and technical postal workers hit the bricks in mid-November. Since then, other than a couple of briefs in the news media, the strike has virtually gone unnoticed. Now, of course, those on strike will disagree, but for the average Canadian who has become accustomed to the semi-regular pre-Christmas extortion postal strike, this year it barely registers on the irritation scale.
Granted, letter carriers are still on the beat, so that’s a big part of the lack of impact. But it also seems apparent that Canadians have become much less reliant on the Crown corporation as their communication conduit. E-mail has knocked off a lot of the reliance on Canada Post, and very competitive private delivery companies have also eaten into Canada Post’s business.
A recent poll showed that about 69 per cent of Canadians oppose allowing private companies to deliver letters in Canada. The Ipsos Reid poll (commissioned by the postal union) showed that about 27 per cent support private-sector competition to the Crown corporation.
We have to believe that if the strike really stopped the flow of mail, those numbers could very well be reversed.
A toothless strike may not gain inside posties many improvements, or even protect them from losing ground, but it probably doesn’t hurt them in the court of public opinion.
Tags: burnaby now, canada post, christmas mail, delivery, postal workers, power, PSAC, public service alliance of canada, Strike, workers
