No More Posties?

Many people will complain about anything, especially when they imagine the “boogie-man” behind every shadow. What is worse is the average person will react emotionally to anything that is unknown therefore an element of fear confuses and takes over the function of reason and logic.

A perfect example arose recently, when Canada Post announced the gradual withdrawal of door-to-door delivery of letter mail in urban centres across Canada. The most vocal reaction was both predictable and could be most accurately described as ‘knee-jerk’ and visceral.

First, the convenience argument:

“… My {fill in the disability} {fill in the relationship} cannot possibly walk a block to get his/her mail every day, because {fill in the pitiful situation} …”

My first thought was, how does {fill in the disability} {fill in the relationship} get groceries, a hair cut, to a doctor, dentist, specialist, etc.?  SOMEHOW {fill in the disability} {fill in the relationship} is able to fulfil most of these activities as well as any other citizen, despite their {fill in the pitiful situation}. If {fill in the disability} {fill in the relationship} gets everything delivered, then perhaps a trusted neighbour, relative, friend could pick up the mail when they pick up their own? Sorry, this argument is a non-starter, designed to reach you at your core emotions, because we all know somebody with {fill in the disability}. I have grown up with people with a variety of disAbilites, and not one of them would accept anybody’s pity, never mind assistance. A babysitter who was born blind (Pauline would not let us get away with ANYTHING), a paraplegic Great Uncle, co-worker in a wheel chair, a blind university professor, and an gifted speaker with Cerebral Palsy.

Second, the financial argument:

An estimated 8,00 letter carriers will be laid off.
8,000 people being paid well beyond the skill set required for the job.
While CUPW is predictably upset about loosing the union dues from these 8,000 people, they only have themselves to blame with their unreasonable pay increase demands over the last 40 years.

Consider the skill set required to deliver mail:

Grade 6 literacy to be able to read an address, and the physical capacity to carry the bag(s) of mail.
This sounds like a job for your average newspaper delivery person who can get paid upwards of $500/MONTH if they take on 3, 4, or 5 delivery routes. We had a neighbour who worked for the post office who bragged that she was home for lunch after working a hard four hour day and was paid for eight. 

Considering that the Federal Minimum wage is based on the provincial/territorial minimum wage they would still be paid between $9.75 and $11.00 hour for each our actually worked, depending on where they work. 

Perhaps if letter carriers were paid their worth, they would not be looking at being laid off and the general public would not be paying $1.00 for a postcard to be delivered in Canada.