Letter carriers in the Edmonton region are complaining about changes to the system they say are leading to longer working hours for them and declining service for Canadians.
In an information campaign launched last week, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers called for Canada Post to hire more carriers and re-evaluate plans for a new mail sorting system.
Local union president Bev Ray said letter carriers are being forced to work overtime more and more often because replacements are not being hired.
Ray said relief carriers, who cover when a regular carrier is off sick or on vacation, are not being hired in sufficient numbers, leading to a big increase in overtime.
“You can expect to be forced to work overtime, depending on the depot as much as four days out of five.”
She said when there are not enough carriers, the existing carriers have to work overtime, leading to later deliveries for customers.
“Canada Post is conditioning Canadians to accept a far inferior postal delivery system in Canada.”
Teresa Williams, a spokesperson for Canada Post, said the corporation is simply following the rules of the collective agreement.
The contract requires them to begin forcing overtime if no one volunteers for an assignment.
“We certainly don’t like to do that, but according to the collective agreement it is spelled out that the person with the least amount of seniority has to take it.”
She said the corporation is like any employer battling for new workers and is also seeing more workers than normal calling in sick.
“Canada Post is constantly hiring and in many cases we are not the only one out there,” she said. “Of late we have had a higher than average amount of absenteeism and that does impact how we do our job.”
Ray said the corporation is being too picky about who it hires, forcing new applicants to meet unrealistic physical standards.
She said that includes telling new applicants they need to be able to carry the full weight of their packs for the whole day, which she feels is unfair because the pack gradually gets lighter.
“I am not sure why Canada Post would create these unfair situations where they are basically setting people up to fail.”
Williams said Canada Post has seen a steady decline in the amount of mail in the system and that has meant a $350 million drop in revenues.
She said the changes are necessary because the current systems and processes are 25 years old.
“We have to improve our efficiency in order to ensure we can continue delivering the mail every day, five days a week for 52 weeks per year,” she said. “Without those efficiencies and the eroding volumes and eroding revenues, it is a quite a scary prospect for us.”
Ray said Canada Post has made profits over the last 15 years that could be reinvested in the process.
