What's up with all the strikes lately?
- Thread starter mentalfloss
- Start date
You are right, the system isn't "broken" by any stretch, but it is fair to say that it has not kept up to the pace of technological advances available in today's world nor is it as responsive as it should be.
CanPost does turn a profit now, but as we know, that was not always the case... My big point in identifying that issue relates to analyzing 'why' those changes in profitability exist... Suffice to say, I believe that it is fair to suggest that the profits are being realized today for 2 reasons: the capital costs of facilities/infrastructure are paid-off and efficiencies that have been introduced into the equation are having their effect.
In terms of the union presence, the problem that I have is that one group has the ability to halt the operations at their discretion AND are protected by law to (unduly) prolong a disruption... This entire issue would not exist if that legislation was altered/repealed.
Belonging to a union is an individual decision; personally, I see more downside to the membership than benefit, but that is a personal opinion. That said, organized labor is not a bad thing, but it's ability to hold ransom the entire society is a big problem.
Caveat: the difference between a strike and lockout makes no difference to the consuming public at large.
Perhaps the mail should be returned to the status of being an "essential service", or put in other terms "the mail must get through". :smile:
Indeed. In this case, the 'one group' that halted the operation of CanadaPost is, CanadaPost management.
Yes, it must be, since they locked out the workers.
I'm not sure who else it would have been.
Yup... Locked 'em out for no reason whatsoever, just a decision made right out of the blue.
If you paid any attention whatsoever, during the rotating strikes, the mail was still being processed and delivered. The actual impact on Canadians was minute - less, in fact, than today has.
I understand that you are looking for any excuse to blame the union, so feel free to do so. It doesn't change the facts, however, that the rotating strikes gave a one-day delay to mail service in various parts of the country, and at no time did mail service actually stop completely.
Spare me please...
The union applied their form of pressure and the management reacted with their form of pressure... You don't like the fact that mgmt had the ability and used it.
What I don't understand is this mentality that you are applying that somehow the union's tactics are somehow without impact on society. All of the excuses in the world don't change the fact that the union took actions to disrupt service that would impact the end user all in an effort to apply pressure to management. Further, there were rumblings that the union was planning on an all out strike because their rotating-strike ploy was having such a minor effect... They ended up getting locked-out before they could effectively strike and shut down the system.
Now, with all this in mind, all the union succeeded in doing was proving that the mail service could potentially be offered on a more limited basis and/or that their service is no where near as important as they believe it to be.
Their bread and butter is parcels not letters and they still beat ALL couriers by at least 50%.
And that is why they bought into eBay. They make money from both the company and they ensure they get first dibs on the parcels buy offering discounted rates to eBay sellers who can pay for and print shipping lablels right at home, walk to the corner and drop that parcel in the red box.
That is a what I call smart business sense. The majority of couriers are unionized through teamsters or railway but they still charge far more than CanandPost.
UPS even tried to sue the Govt of Canada but lost thank goodness because that would have been coming out of your and my pockets.
Whoever put those goofy competition clauses into NAFTA needs to be shot. Even if they are already dead.
That is a what I call smart business sense. The majority of couriers are unionized through teamsters or railway but they still charge far more than CanandPost.
UPS even tried to sue the Govt of Canada but lost thank goodness because that would have been coming out of your and my pockets.
Whoever put those goofy competition clauses into NAFTA needs to be shot. Even if they are already dead.
Not surprising when they charge $20 to send a parcel the size of my thumb! I rather think they make more out of junk mail and ads than they do from parcels. I used to think Greyhound was better for parcels (until my son's cell phone got lost)
Now you're blaming the union for what they planned to do, but were beaten to the punch by management.
Let's recap: the rotating strikes had minimal effect on Canadians, so the post office had to lock them out.
The rotating strikes had minimal effect on Canadians, so they planned to escalate it to a full strike, so the post office locked them out.
The post office is an anachronistic system that nobody uses, so they had to be legislated back to work.
The post office is an anachronistic system that nobody uses, but must be privatized so we guarantee an efficient system.
Sounds good to me.
That makes sooo little sense.
You're saying that the rotating strikes had so little impact that mgmt locked them out?... Are you for real?
How much moolah did Mgt save while the trucks sat in the lot and no pay cheques issued? More than enough to cover any raises?
Since the strike ended the only mail I got was my gas bill and a letter from the Conservatives panhandling for memberships.
Since the strike ended the only mail I got was my gas bill and a letter from the Conservatives panhandling for memberships.