Twas the night before Christmas and out in the street, not a mail truck was rolling,
they had parked the whole fleet.
A lonely grandmother stares out at her mailbox, longing for the Christmas card with
a beautiful photo of the smiling faces of faraway grandchildren that likely isn’t coming
in time.
Those grandkids, on the other side of the country, press their little hands up to the windowpane watching for the mail truck to bring that magical, big box of gifts from granny, with a tin of her special cookies on top. Is there still time for it to make it? Granny can’t afford to ship it by courier at three times the rate she would’ve paid to send it by
Canada Post.
The local food bank’s phone has been ringing off the hook with call after call from families in need, calling to register for Christmas hampers and essentials. Management watches as the list grows longer and their bank balance decreases, suffering from the loss of all the mail-in donations that may not arrive this year. They worry if they’ll be able to help everyone in need.
A small business owner who creates unique, handmade gift items fills her stock room with orders waiting to go out. She’s reached out to the various couriers but has been told that they may not be able to take on additional deliveries. How will she get orders out at this late date? Will she have to turn away business? Will she lose customers and receive bad reviews when their orders arrive late?
At the local community newspaper, it’s been all hands on deck to get the news into the hands of their readers. The entire team: management, sales, production, and editorial have heaped bundles of papers into their vehicles to drop off at every depanneur, grocery store, and municipal office in a hundred-mile radius.
The effects of the strike have gone even deeper: northern communities that rely on Canada Post for delivery of essential medications and food have been going without. The private couriers don’t deliver there. The situation wasn’t just inconvenient, it was life-threatening.
Yes, it has been Canada Post (both management and the union) who have stolen
Christmas this year; both sides, blaming each other for the lack of quick and reasonable solutions to the issues on the table.
Now that the federal government has intervened, both sides in this dispute need to stop taking petty shots at each other and get back to the table. They need to recognize and honour the tremendous duty that they have to serve this country.
Hopefully, the process will result in a solution that’s agreeable for both sides without adversely impacting businesses and people any more than it already has.
