Canada Post and CUPW have reached an agreement. But that's not the end of the story. The real drama, Tom Walkom writes, is just beginning:
The main event – what to do with the Crown corporation – is set to begin next month.
That’s when a four-person task force set up by Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is due to report. Chaired by the head of the Quebec Chamber of Commerce, the task force has been told to “identify viable options” for Canada Post.In announcing the move this May, Public Services Minister Judy Foote said that everything except privatization is on the table.
The volume of mail has steadily declined. But the delivery of parcels has become a booming business. And, to take advantage of that fact, Canada Post bought Purolator Courier several years ago. But new circumstances mean that employment for mail carriers is on the line. And it leaves the corporation with two broad choices:
First, it can cut costs and raise stamp prices. This is the strategy that Canada Post management is vigorously following through its cuts to home delivery and its take-no-prisoners approach to collective bargaining with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).The problem it faces is that this strategy is ultimately self-defeating. As service becomes even more inconvenient and expensive, fewer people will use the post office.This can lead only to a death spiral.Second, the post office can cover part of the cost of those operations that lose money by investing in activities that make money.Canada Post already engages in cross-subsidization. The money it earns by delivering junk-mail helps cover the cost of standard mail. Its policy of delivering letters anywhere in the country for the same price acts, in effect, as a subsidy to those who correspond over long distances. Its Purolator parcel delivery segment cross-subsidizes its less profitable post office segment.
The corporation is now considering getting back into the banking business -- something which would benefit small communities. Whatever model the post office adopts, changes are coming down the pike.
Image: sheldonkirshner.com
16 comments:
Drop the mail. Its a buggy whip.
Out in the country here, we're some distance from the post office in town, Steve.
Personally, from what I read, Owen, postal banking is the ticket. However, I can't help but wonder if that is even a possibility, given the influence the big banks wield in this country.
Owen the future is courier or electronic billing. There is no reason for mail for the masses, its like steak, to rich for the proliteriat of the future.
For those of us with internet access, that's true, Steve. But there are still lots of people, who -- for a variety of reasons -- don't have access to the internet. The first reason is cost.
Good question, Lorne. But it's not a new idea. It's merely reviving an old one.
You are not kidding when you say these ideas are nothing new Owen! The Senate report on rural Canada made several suggestions along this line in 2008 http://ruralcanadian.blogspot.com/2008/10/senate-report-on-rural-canada.html
but the Cons just shelved the report. As for those that say we don't need home delivery and all can be done via the internet have no idea, as you say, on the difficulties of getting ANY affordable connection in large swaths of rural Canada and discount the many seniors who are just not up to this new fangled way of communicating!
There is a myth that all Canadians are connected to the internet, Rural. We tend to live in our own little silos. We forget that what is true for us isn't true for lots of other people.
It's so hard to convince some people that reality doesn't stop at the tips of their noses.
A sealed and stamped letter is more secure than an email. The sealed letter is almost sacred; there is open season on email.
Quite true, Toby. Hackers and viruses are everywhere.
It's easy to get comfortable in our boxes, Dana -- while the world passes us by.
Until we free ourselves of the rancid ideology of neoliberalism, Owen, we must strenuously resist privatization, even if only on principle. Politically, neoliberalism is a state of self-destructive madness and no one in that state of mind should be making such monumental decisions. There is a powerful case to be made for public sector monopolies in essential services as they better respond to public interest. The private sector cannot be trusted to do the same. The privatization of British Rail is a perfect example.
There has always been room in the country for public monopolies, Mound. A big land with a small population cannot always rely on market solutions.
As service becomes even more inconvenient and expensive, fewer people will use the post office.
This can lead only to a death spiral.
This was Harper's plan: price the service out of existence and privatize the remains.
Precisely, Anon. That was Harper's overall strategy: death by a thousand cuts.
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