Canada Post hides service cuts in modernization plans

WINNIPEG , Sept. 17 /CNW Telbec/ - Canada Post is using its modernization plans like a Trojan Horse to smuggle public postal service cuts into Winnipeg according to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).

Canada Post is removing 75 mail boxes from streets, eliminating 9:00 a.m. and weekend clearance of mail boxes, removing residential parcel delivery on weekends and reducing mail pick-up time in the Nairn Street depot.

These service cuts affect small businesses, seniors, retirees and lower income residents the most.

"You have to look at the big picture and grapple with cause-and-effect," said CUPW Winnipeg Local President Bob Tyre . "A profitable public corporation just cut service. Now we have fewer jobs and more job cuts are expected. That means fewer decent incomes going back into local businesses."

It is ironic that Winnipeg's postal service is be reduced because the federal government has just introduced a Canadian Postal Services Charter. Obviously the Charter doesn't stop big service cuts.

According to CUPW, the Conservative's Service Charter either reiterates previous policy or possibly reduces the scope of previous protections.

"As front line workers in direct contact with businesses and the public, we're seeing the death of a thousand cuts to public postal services in Winnipeg ," said Tyre. "The only solution now is to start public consultation so that Canada Post and the federal Conservatives can share their real plans for the future of our public post office. People want their services."

For further information: Bob Tyre, CUPW Winnipeg Local President, [phone] ext 4, or [phone]