By Samantha Porter
The corporate media has made a contest out of spreading the most outlandish lies about postal workers. We’re simultaneously considered obsolete, glorified paperboys, yet also blamed for destroying Canadian small businesses. They say we should be privatized and subjected to the whims of the market, but in the same breath demand that we be treated as an “essential service” and forced back to work.
The media, echoing the bosses’ narrative, has descended into self-contradiction and falsehoods. As always, the truth lies squarely with the workers.
The truth about Separate Sort and Delivery
Letter carriers are being crushed under unmanageable, unsustainable workloads. Our routes can exceed 1,700 delivery points, involve climbing more than 160 flights of stairs, or stretch over 30 kilometers. We perform these tasks while carrying the weight of 7 bundles of mail, flyers, and parcels. These grueling demands are the result of a delivery model imposed by management, conceived in the fantasy world of a business school, called “separate sort and delivery.”
“Separate sort and delivery” was designed to eliminate the carrier’s duty to sort and prepare their mail. In reality, it means workers are stripped of the time and tools to do so, yet we’re still expected to perform these tasks in inadequate workplaces. This so-called efficiency has allowed Canada Post to drastically lengthen routes using a broken, outdated measurement system. The result: longer, more punishing workloads with fewer resources.
Instead of improving service, this model has made mail delivery less efficient. Routes are so long that they can’t be completed reliably on a daily basis, leading to backlogged mail that must be reintegrated into the system for the next day’s delivery—adding unnecessary costs to already-sorted mail.
The corporation uses these inhumane route lengths as an excuse to harass, discipline, and abuse workers they view as problematic. Those who report hazards on their routes are targeted and ignored. Workers who take their lunch or restroom breaks are punished, expected to skip meals and urinate in bottles. Workers who demand safe conditions or report injuries face retaliation. Women, trans, and racialized workers are especially isolated and mistreated. All of this is done under the guise of “performance issues” with workers struggling to walk 30+ kilometers a day.
Highest rate of injuries among federal workers
Rather than collaborate with the union to restructure routes into manageable, safe workloads, the corporation is trying to remove the collective agreement’s protections against surveillance and tracking. They want to use these tools to discipline workers on flimsy grounds, making it easier to punish us for the corporation’s failure to provide proper working conditions.
The constant, arbitrary discipline has created a dire health and safety crisis at Canada Post. Workers are so terrified of retaliation that they’re afraid to report hazards. Workers attempting to address safety issues are often escorted out to their routes by supervisors who scream at them for taking too long. If they file a safety complaint, they may find themselves the subject of baseless investigations into alleged criminal wrongdoing. Is it any wonder that letter carriers have the highest rate of injury of any federal workers?
Canada Post expects us to endure these grueling conditions for poverty wages. The average postal worker makes only $35,000 to $40,000 a year—while the bloated CEO and his 22-member board rake in $450,000 plus bonuses, all while running a public service into the ground with service cuts and negligence.
“Competitiveness”
Canada Post Corporation claims its ill-conceived changes are necessary to remain “competitive.” These changes include demands for “flexibility,” alongside restricting access to benefits and pensions.
Across the industry, logistics workers’ rights are being gutted under the guise of “competitiveness.” Amazon and Uber are at the forefront of this attack, reintroducing piecework through the gig economy and creating conditions where workers are forced to live in cars or work 12+ hour shifts just to afford to rent a bedroom. This isn’t competition—it’s exploitation. Postal workers are determined to put an end to these degrading conditions.
The business class is racing to the bottom, asking only how much more they can bleed from workers. CUPW refuses to let decades of hard-won labor rights—paid for in workers’ blood—be sacrificed for corporate greed. Postal workers set the benchmark for fair wages and rights in this industry. Breaking our union isn’t just an attack on CUPW—it’s an attack on every logistics worker in Canada.
Blood, sweat, and tears
CUPW members give their blood, sweat, and tears to serve Canadians every day. But our ability to do so is being sabotaged by a few greedy, self-serving parasites. Canada Post’s management is inept, malicious, and hostile. They’re in their positions only because they’re willing to terrorize workers into submission. They are the single largest factor in the dysfunction of Canada Post, and the service would run more smoothly if these petty tyrants weren’t standing in our way.
The long-term solution, for Canada Post and for any industry, is to put workers directly in control and eliminate the ownership class.
Postal workers are not just fighting for fair wages and humane working conditions. We’re fighting to preserve a vital public service that connects Canadians across vast distances. The bosses and their media want you to believe we’re lazy or greedy, but the truth is—we’re exhausted, exploited, and determined to fight back. Support your postal workers—our struggle is your struggle.
Photos supplied by Samantha Porter. The author’s name has been changed to protect them from management retaliation.