OTTAWA (Staff) – Canada Post is planning to implement “efficiencies” this year that will reduce the number of part-time and casual employees working in rural prairie post offices.
It will limit mail sorting at 112 rural post offices in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and northwestern Ontario to mail destined for local addresses.
Mail destined for out-of-town addresses would be put in a separate post box, hauled unsorted to a larger centre and sorted there.
A yet-to-be-determined number of part-time and casual employees would lose their jobs or see their hours reduced.
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“It is really an efficiency issue,” Canada Post spokesperson John Caines said last week. “That mail will not have to be sorted twice. It will move faster.”
The association representing rural postmasters and assistants is challenging the plan, arguing it will reduce service and cut rural jobs.
“It is both an employee issue and a service issue,” said Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association president Leroy Kuan.
Last week, Canada Post agreed to delay implementation of the changes while it discusses them with the association. Originally, it had planned to move in August.
“There was a communications problem in contacting the union,” said Caines. “Discussions will be held.”
The CPAA says the system will both take jobs out of rural Canada and slow delivery of mail to rural areas.
The so-called “twinning” system has been operating in some communities for years.
It involves having two post boxes in town, one for local mail and one for out-of-town mail. Only local mail is sorted locally.
“It is just a way to eliminate one unnecessary sorting procedure,” said the Canada Post spokesperson.
