Postal Workers Call Out Canada Posts’ Mismanagement

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Canada Post says it is facing a serious financial crisis. The company warns it could run out of the cash it needs to operate and keep in reserve by 2025 unless it borrows more money or refinances its debt. But workers say the Crown Corporation's narrative is misleading and doesn't address the corporation's gross mismanagement of company finances. 

“I've been through a few of these labour stoppages,” says Tim Ashworth, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers local president of Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) 566, which represents about 180 employees in Kingston, Ontario. “Every time we come to the [negotiating] table, Canada Post seems to be losing heaps of money and cries poor and wants to put it on the back of the workers.” 

Tim has worked for Canada Post for over 30 years and has witnessed first-hand how the corporation has driven itself into a financial crisis. “We believe that this loss of funds is really a direct result of mismanagement,” says Tim. “And we don't believe that workers should have to pay for this.”

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Canada Post experienced a surge in parcel delivery. Canada Post workers agreed to extend their contracts for two years with only a 2% wage increase per year to serve Canadians during a period of crisis. 

As a response to the surge in deliveries, Canada Post allocated $4 billion to upgrade its infrastructure. Unsurprisingly, parcel numbers stopped growing as the pandemic slowed down. Instead of adapting its 5-year plan to this new reality, Canada Post continued overspending on unnecessary infrastructural changes. $4 billion spread over 5 years means that Canada Post was allocating $800 million in non-labour spending every year. It is no coincidence, say the workers, that Canada Post claims to have lost $748 million in 2023. 

Canada Post is investing in “misguided innovation” 

Tim Ashworth told The North Star that the infrastructural changes Canada Post is trying to implement are “misguided” and don't reflect the needs of workers or the Canadian public. 

“[Senior management] are not coming to us looking for solutions. They're making up their own solutions, and a lot of the time, they're not appropriate for the work we do,” says Tim. 

He gave The North Star examples of the types of initiatives Canada Post has been spending money on.

“One thing that I've seen is a plan for a robotic sorting arm inside main stations that will pick a letter out, read it, and put it in the right hole. Well, we believe that we can do that. They don't need to spend hundreds of million dollars on robots to do it.” 

“They're working on robotized relay boxes. Relay boxes are the boxes you see in the corner of the road where we pick up our mail out of. They're putting those on wheels with all kinds of artificial intelligence sensors to follow us down the streets so that we can pick mail out of it as we go, and we believe this is a ridiculous waste of money. The work is getting done as it is. This is an unnecessary modernization of equipment.”

Tim shared that Canada Post has been rolling out new larger trucks across the country to upgrade the company's fleet. Each new truck, however, costs $100,000. Workers say they can make do with older trucks and the new trucks are “a waste of money.” 

Canada Post employees want the corporation to focus on workers, not robots. Instead of wasting money on expensive equipment or technology that could take away jobs, they are asking for better working conditions. Their demands include fair wages that match the rising cost of living, stronger benefits, more job security for temporary workers, and protections against harmful technological changes.

Workers are not only demanding better work conditions. They believe that the corporation can be saved from financial crisis if it adopts solutions put forward by workers. The “Delivering Community Power” campaign would expand essential services Canada Post offers such as postal banking, elder check-ins, food delivery and high speed internet, which would be especially beneficial in rural areas across the country.

Canada Post executives should be held accountable

While Canada Post employees face some of Canada's highest rates of workplace injuries, senior executives have been rewarding themselves annually with a bonus called “risk pay.” 

“They give themselves bonuses for putting themselves in risk, but it's our workers that are really in danger. We are the ones outside,” says Tim. “Sometimes we are told that we have to stay out after dark delivering mail, often in the middle of winter. Sometimes in rural areas, workers don't even have cell phone access in case of an emergency. We want better standards for these employees, and we want better protection from them. We want Canada Post to acknowledge the value of its workers.”

Workers believe that they should not be punished for financial mismanagement by senior executives, who continue to reward themselves with enormous salaries while neglecting the needs of workers and the public.

“We should be a profitable corporation. We move the majority of Canadians' packages and mail across the country,” says Tim. “[Canada Post's current senior executives] should be put under a microscope and really made to explain why this company is losing all this money.” 

When asked whether Canada Post is listening to workers' demands during the strike, Tim expressed that he does not believe the corporation is negotiating in good faith given the government's track record of forcing workers back to work during previous strikes. Workers worry that Canada Post is dragging its feet, waiting for government action and back to work legislation ahead of Christmas holidays. ​