Canada Post's proposed changes to service delivery to cut costs will be a "disaster," according to a local labour leader.
"Because honestly, who doesn't think that cutting services while increasing prices is a good idea," said Tami Brushey, president of Canadian Union of Postal Workers local 812 (CUPW).
More than two dozen union members and supporters gathered outside Prince George-Peace River MP Bob Zimmer's Seventh Avenue office Wednesday afternoon to protest the Crown corporation's announced plan to phase out urban home delivery over five years as part of a $900 million cost-cutting exercise. The first affected neighbourhoods will be announced in the second half of this year.
Zimmer was selected as the rally's target due to comments he made in a mid-December opinion piece defending Canada Post's plan.
"Either he didn't do any research before he took up his pen or he's deliberately misleading the public," said Brushey.
Instead of door-to-door delivery, mail would be picked up at community mailboxes and up to 8,000 jobs would be phased out.
"Eight thousand fewer jobs will take roughly $400 million a year out of the Canadian economy," said Brushey. "How's that for an economic action plan?"
Longtime Canada Post employee Lana Wilson said she recently moved into a home in College Heights with such a box and that it was vandalized prior to Christmas.
"That's ... right on a busy street in the middle of day. It wasn't done at night time," said Wilson, who added she has seen a variety of changes in the 27 years she's worked with Canada Post, but none as bad as within the past five years.
Some rally participants carried posters displaying photos of community mailboxes from around the country that had been vandalized or were obstructed by snow banks.
"Don't they look like an awesome exercise opportunity to you?" asked Brushey, riffing on Canada Post CEO Deepak Chopra's response to a parliamentary committee that seniors want to be more active in response to a question about how the change would affect them.
John Woodrow came out to support the event because he said he believes in Canada Post and finds its service better than private competitors.
"They have to be creative and competitive and find ways that Canada Post survives," said Woodrow. "It's a good service. Period."
However, Woodrow doesn't agree with that creativity leaning towards cutting home delivery.
"Older people, retired people,... for them to go out in [rough] weather conditions is very dangerous and to go to these mailboxes and get their mail I think is totally unreasonable - especially with the aging population it's going to become more and more critical," he said.
Last week, Woodrow said he even went so far as to move his mailbox to the very front of his property to cut down on the distance his carrier would have to travel in the snow.
"It's realistic," he said. "The conditions... have been very dangerous."
Roger Annis arrived in Prince George from Vancouver on Wednesday afternoon to speak at UNBC later this week and attended the rally after reading about it in The Citizen.
A retired aircraft technician, Annis said he was surprised the entire union movement didn't band together in a one-day general strike in support of CUPW when the news of the proposed changes broke in December.
"I believe on this issue, on [increases to the Canada Pension Plan], the need to take back all the cuts to employment insurance, I think the majority of Canadians are with the unions on this and we have to play a leadership role on this," he said. "If we just sit back and let this stuff happen, it's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong."
CUPW members will be set up at CN Centre on Saturday collecting signatures for their petition to protect home delivery.
