Editorial: Another postal strike

I don’t have a problem with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) going on rotating strikes beginning this week, as much as I just plain have a problem with Canada Post – a crown corporation of the Government of Canada.

Caribou Publishing newspapers spend thousands of dollars a month with Canada Post mailing newspapers to our readers, so we’ve become pretty familiar with the practices of the post office. Although some employees and post offices are excellent, the leadership of others (or lack of) has very apparently rubbed off on most every employee down the chain of command.

A poor attitude can affect employees in all businesses, however I usually have a choice not to use businesses when I dislike their practices or service. With the near monopoly that is Canada Post, most community newspapers have no choice but to use the service and we are among them.

At one post office, while I dropped off the newspapers early in the morning, I overheard some delivery people whispering that they already had their trucks loaded and weren’t planning to go the extra mile to load the rural papers before they left.

What about “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor…?”

Sometimes when papers are dropped off, there seems to be a look of disappointment like we had just condemned them to a morning of drudgery.

How about a smile and a thank you? That’s what we say when our largest customer drops by to give us a bunch of business. . . . contd.