More important than Christmas

Finally, a worthwhile reason for the season: a postal worker strike!

A Grinch looms large over Christmas in Canada. This spectre is no ghost, nor is there just one or three of them: it’s tens of thousands of striking Canada Post workers who, in their Grinchiness, may yet ruin this holiday season. It is not that they are stealing your presents and ribbons and tags… but refusing to deliver them.

Such selfishness! Don’t postal workers know that this is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, the time of year when they break their backs marching through snow and ice and mandatory overtime to ensure you receive all the landfill-destined action figures and shoddily-sewn socks you would never bother leaving the house to get yourself?

Even citizens like me who live and work in west Edmonton, mere miles from one of the largest malls in North America, are horribly inconvenienced by the working class’ struggle for a better world.

In case the nature of this charade escaped your attention, I shall remind you of the moral of Dr Seuss’ story, which the titular Grinch learns just in time:

“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

Postal workers are fighting for that little bit more. In fact, you owe postal workers a little bit more than ‘thanks’ for a little bit more than ‘packages, boxes, or bags,’ whether you know it or not. Postal workers are not the ‘Grinch’ ruining Christmas—Canada Post is.

I am not writing to bargain in public for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). I am not familiar with everything that has led to this current strike, for one thing, and am not so presumptuous as to speak on their behalf. But I am willing to defend them, and so should you.

Why are postal workers on strike in 2024? Nothing serious, of course. They believe they deserve wages that keep up with the worst cost of living crisis in decades, an end to the fact that they are more likely than almost anyone to suffer a permanently disabling injury while on the job, better services for you and your community, as well as a half-decent pension plan. I suppose you can decide for yourself if any of that is worth fighting for.

Before you do, be mindful that what you believe is worth fighting for may also be what you take for granted. CUPW members snubbed the law in 1965, staging a country-wide wildcat strike for higher wages, not to mention the right to strike itself, and in so doing won collective bargaining rights for the entire federal civil service. Their strike in the 1980s, which they also won, popularized the notion that all workers, not just those at Canada Post, deserve a long, paid, and restful (Ha!) parental leave.

My father, Alan Delorme, was a proud participant in this brave tradition. He became a letter carrier in his early 20s. It would be inaccurate to say his employment provided food and shelter all my life, but it did house a wealth of stories, some naughty and some nice, from delivering mail for Henry “Gizmo” Williams and Georges Laraque, to the inflamed ankle that never seemed to get better, to confronting his boss alongside his coworkers to demand fair treatment for everyone at the depot.

My father never retired. He passed a few days after the first birthday that would allow him to do so. Nevertheless, his insurance and pension are further examples of substantial, if wholly unsatisfying, benefits that he and his union went to war for and won. But perhaps we would prefer not to think about that.

I know, I know; Canada Post loses money and is a drain on your tax dollars… except that no, no; it doesn’t and it isn’t. Canada Post runs on the money it generates. When was the last time you sent a letter or parcel for free? Even if it were a tax-funded operation—who cares? It is a public service. Normal people don’t care if schools don’t make money. Normal people don’t care if hospitals don’t make money. These are necessary programs that serve the common good, and it is just as normal and good to not care whether Canada Post makes a dime of ‘profit.’

Canada Post is obliged to deliver to any address in Canada, whether it is profitable or not. Would you prefer if the only option were a private company that only delivered if it were profitable? I don’t.

Which is exactly why it would be a mistake of a different kind to dismiss profits as having nothing to do with Canada Post and this strike. Consider Canada Post’s profit-generating competitor, Purolator. For all intents and purposes, Purolator is actually owned by Canada Post (91 per cent share) and Canada Post’s higher-ups—who naturally sit on the Purolator Board of Directors—are happy to promote Purolator as the private sector alternative, especially when CUPW members are on strike.

One might fairly ask why Canada Post Executives are allowed to hold such high stakes in the success of Canada Post’s main competitor, especially when Purolator boasts over $230M in profits. To put it plainly, is it fair for Canada Post’s fat cats to cut and abuse one group of employees while making lots and lots of money from their own rival company? There may be underlying (or underhanded) reasons for this, but who could possibly say.

No CEO nor shareholder has ever worked as hard as a postal worker. Not for ever, not for one day.

I understand the postal workers’ strike may seriously affect your Christmas plans, including letters to Santa. There is not a single person on a CUPW picket line who does not understand this, either. That is the point. Striking when it would not matter would not yield results. Striking when it does matter gives postal workers the leverage they need to win the fight quickly. This is how most successful strikes work, and it is precisely because of why this matters to you that you should support them, not vilify them.

If the post office is so valuable, then the post office workers deserve a decent living, just like you and me, and I can almost guarantee that you and I provide less value to society than the average letter carrier. It is not the workers’ fault that Canada Post is a horrible employer who they have to fight for a higher wage and safer workloads. The real question is: why are you not doing the same at your horrible job with your horrible employer?

Some well-meaning leftists and progressives in general may tell you that it is not your fault if you hate the postal workers and their strike. After all, we are relentlessly propagandized and misled by a cabal of rich, bloodthirsty capitalists, and one cannot reasonably expect busy, average people to abandon dancing shadows and embrace enlightenment outside the cave. But not me, for I am not so well-meaning. I respect you too much to treat you as if you still believe in Santa Claus. If you sincerely care more that a Christmas present arrives on time than whether the person delivering that package can feel their toes or even move at the end of a grueling, thankless shift, I am afraid that is a moral failure on your part and I am just as sincerely sorry for you.

Redemption is possible, however. If you are tough enough to eat my barbed words you are tough enough to critically examine this strike in the broader economic and cultural moment in which you find yourself. You may even be tough enough to carry the mail. I believe in you, and I think you’ll find that things can only get better, for everyone, if we stick together and demand the rich and powerful start leaving some presents under the tree for the rest of us.

If bosses, politicians, shareholders and CEOs don’t want strikes, they should simply give us everything we want. If we don’t want strikes, we should simply bully our bosses, politicians, shareholders and CEOs until they give us everything we want.

In short, Long Live the Post Horn!