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Postal workers rally against cuts

Union pushes for public pressure
Chris Bolster

Cars passing in front of the post office honked in support as Canada Post postal workers took to the busy intersection of Joyce Avenue and Alberni Street to protest the proposed cuts to postal service.

More than a dozen postal workers, some with placards, stood on the sidewalk at noon on Monday, January 27, and waved to cars as they passed by.

Elaine Maclean, Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) Local 808 president, said the noontime rally is designed to bring attention to the job cuts that were announced by Canada Post on December 11.

“This is something that we have to stand up and fight,” said Maclean. “We’re not going to take this lying down.”

Maclean added that this rally and others happening around the country have been timed to coincide with the return of members of parliament to the house of commons. The union is hoping that the general public will contact their members of parliament to raise concerns about the postal corporation’s plan.

The postal corporation announced it would eliminate door-to-door delivery and shed between 6,000 to 8,000 jobs through attrition due to retiring staff over the course of the next five years.

“Where it will start, we don’t know,” said Maclean, adding that in Powell River only one person is slated to retire in the next six months. Fifteen letter carriers work out of the Powell River post office and Maclean estimates that after the changes happen there may only be enough work for five.

The cuts are not limited just to the letter carriers, said Maclean, noting that the retail staff jobs at the post office are also in jeopardy.

She and other postal workers are concerned about the hike in the price of stamps for letters, from 63 cents up to $1, and the installation of CMB, community mailboxes.

“Where are they going to put them?” Maclean asked. She thinks the boxes, which can be messy with flyers dropped on the ground and people coming to pick up their mail at all hours, will have a negative effect on housing prices. “Who is going to want one of those in front of their house?”