Yeah, paper flyers are absurdly wasteful. We as a society should really try to find a way to eliminate them. Unfortunately right now they make up a significant chunk of Canada Post’s revenue, thanks to a bunch of unfair competition in the parcel market, where they should be making their money.
Which is why this is going to be so effective as a strike action. The company’s income stream gets blown up while the essential service continues to deliver the stuff people actually want in their mailboxes.
If it wasn’t for all those flyers, I don’t think the organization would be able to survive longer term. Do you actually get mail anymore?! I don’t (other than junk), I can count on like one and a half hands how many times a year I receive stuff that I actually want. Most of it comes from the private companies like FedEx or Purolator as well, because no one seems confident to rely on Canada Post anymore.
You or I might not get a ton of mail, but there are still plenty of people who depend on the service. Not everyone has reliable internet access or wants to put everything online. But yes, lettermail is essentially a relic. Parcels are where the money is. Canada Post is still the cheapest and safest option (except during a labour dispute) when it comes to shipping parcels, not to mention the only option if you don’t live in a city.
The problem is with the private couriers – who aren’t legally mandated to sink money into lettermail or rural delivery, and who exploit the hell out of their workers – using that unfair advantage to capture more and more of the parcel market.
And the funniest part: Canada Post owns Purolator. They’ve been quietly doing an end run around CUPW’s bargaining power this whole time.
Yeah, paper flyers are absurdly wasteful. We as a society should really try to find a way to eliminate them. Unfortunately right now they make up a significant chunk of Canada Post’s revenue, thanks to a bunch of unfair competition in the parcel market, where they should be making their money.
Which is why this is going to be so effective as a strike action. The company’s income stream gets blown up while the essential service continues to deliver the stuff people actually want in their mailboxes.
If it wasn’t for all those flyers, I don’t think the organization would be able to survive longer term. Do you actually get mail anymore?! I don’t (other than junk), I can count on like one and a half hands how many times a year I receive stuff that I actually want. Most of it comes from the private companies like FedEx or Purolator as well, because no one seems confident to rely on Canada Post anymore.
You or I might not get a ton of mail, but there are still plenty of people who depend on the service. Not everyone has reliable internet access or wants to put everything online. But yes, lettermail is essentially a relic. Parcels are where the money is. Canada Post is still the cheapest and safest option (except during a labour dispute) when it comes to shipping parcels, not to mention the only option if you don’t live in a city.
The problem is with the private couriers – who aren’t legally mandated to sink money into lettermail or rural delivery, and who exploit the hell out of their workers – using that unfair advantage to capture more and more of the parcel market.
And the funniest part: Canada Post owns Purolator. They’ve been quietly doing an end run around CUPW’s bargaining power this whole time.