The top dog in the Canadian Union of Postal Workers was in Cranbrook on Monday to speak on the future of Canada Post and the importance of the election on that future. Mike Palecek, the national president of the CUPW, is on a road tour, which started in St. Johns, Newfoundland and is heading west from there.
Palecek is speaking to the public and members of the union about the importance of planned changes for Canada Post by the Conservative government and what effect those changes will have on home delivery.
“He just wanted to emphasize — certainly to the membership, as well as the general public — about how important this election is to the future of Canada Post and what Canadians want to have as a post office in the future,” said Brent Bush, president of the Cranbrook Local CUPW.
“The Conservatives have certainly identified their plans.”
Bush said Palecek wanted people he spoke with to research the topic a little bit and speak to their federal candidates about where their parties stand on postal service.
“We’re talking about potential closures of post offices in rural areas, the impacts that conversion to community mailboxes is going to have for disabled people and the elderly,” he said. “It becomes a question of access.”
He said there are also municipal issues, such as the downloading of costs.
He also mentioned the lack of consultation by Canada Post.
“People have kind of been fed a story about the dire natures of Canada Post, and yes the post office can be smarter and more efficient, but what the Conservatives are looking at is essentially the prelude to privatization and the selling off of a very valuable asset,” Bush said.