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LETTER: Postal workers denied leverage to negotiate

Dear Editor: Why isn’t pressure put on Canada Post to negotiate in good faith? Why must the Crown agency make a profit when they are intended to provide a service? Should not the service come before profit? If Canada Post workers are receiving “…disa
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Dear Editor:

Why isn’t pressure put on Canada Post to negotiate in good faith? Why must the Crown agency make a profit when they are intended to provide a service? Should not the service come before profit?
If Canada Post workers are receiving “…disabling workplace injuries — at a rate more than five times that in other federally regulated work,” why isn’t this a health and safety issue? The issue of on-the-job injury isn’t a negotiable contract issue. Why isn’t the federal government stepping in immediately?  
Note that the majority of RSMCs are women who make 28 per cent less than men. Sounds like a convenient math solution for Canada Post. So much for the mandate by Status of Women Canada.
By denying the CUPW the right to strike because of the disruption to service prior to Christmas denies them the leverage they need to negotiate. With back to work legislation, the pressure to negotiate is taken off Canada Post. With the pressure put equally on Canada Post, the settlement may have come more quickly. Canada Post offered $1,000 per worker to stop strike activity until February because that would take the leverage away from CUPW.
And the Canadian government condones all of the above. Next, Canada Post will expect employees to work a minimum wage with tips. Is that what we expect from our government? Are they truly looking after our well-being?
The argument by the Fraser Institute against the public service is that they get higher wages and better benefits than the private sector. Perhaps the private sector should be getting the same as the public sector.

Byron Bona
Deep Cove

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