Right in the centre - I think I'm done with Canada Post

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Published on Thursday, December 5, 2024

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner & Press

On Sunday in a press release, Canada Post said they presented the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) with a new proposal. CUPW covers very few postal workers in rural western Manitoba. Most local post offices are covered by Postmasters who are members of Canadian Association of Postmasters. They are not on strike, but either CUPW or Canada Post have basically shut the post offices down. Even non-striking post offices are not allowed to receive local mail. Even if you want to send someone a cheque to pay a bill, Canada Post is forbidding it. 

Ironically, Canada Post also said, “We understand the impact CUPW’s national strike is having on your business, our employees and so many Canadians. Canada Post remains committed to negotiating new collective agreements that will provide the certainty everyone is looking for.”

Canada Post added, “We know you need certainty at this critical time of year and the union’s national strike continues to impact your business. We are committed to providing you with timely updates and the details you need to make informed decisions.”

Well, I have news for Canada Post. This isn’t our first rodeo. In fact, this is the seventh Canada Post strike we have been through in 35 years of publishing. Over the years, because of strikes and very poor service from the non-local people we have taken more and more of our business away from Canada Post. We have been served very, very well by local post offices but when we realized a few years back that papers take up to a week to get from town to town due to delays and backlogs in Brandon, Dauphin or Winnipeg, we started pulling out of Canada Post.

Our family papers used to be one of Canada Post’s largest south-western Manitoba’s customer. When we pulled out, we didn’t get so much as phone call. Not surprised though. I only phoned Canada Post three to four times a year but they didn’t even return those calls.

I am so done with Canada Post’s rules, delays and their ignoring customers’ needs. This strike, like all the other strikes makes for a huge delay in the cash flow for small business cash flow. CUPW doesn’t care much about their customers and neither does the Corporate level of Canada Post. The local postmasters are not pleased as they are being forced to refuse mail. Now, even local papers, even Christmas cards are being turned back at local post offices due to Canada Post’s new found rules.

Fortunately for our papers we only use Canada Post for three locations but that is ending. As of this week, none of our three papers, the Neepawa Banner&Press, Rivers Banner nor the Virden Empire Advance will be handled through Canada Post. 

I especially want to thank the staff at Rivers Post Office, Alonsa and Silver Ridge for treating us so well but we are done with Canada Post.

I can’t see how Canada Post can keep going and pretend to be serving the public. In last week’s column I wrote about the annual losses and the general incompetence at the corporate level.

In their press release they talk about providing certainty to customers. Canada Post has certainly provided certainty to this newspaper company. We are pretty certain we won’t ever again trust our fate to Canada Post. Yes, this is not our first rodeo but I am not going to risk being bucked off again.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are the writer’s personal views and are not to be taken as being the view of the newspaper staff.