Canada Post Strike

[burnin_vernon]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Yes, I did. I also compared it to working in a yard or a shop. My point is that letter carriers don't walk any more than a lot of other jobs, so I don't understand the emphasis placed on it.

At the gas station were you carrying significant weight for your whole shift? Did you have to stay outside for the entire shift without any breaks from the weather? Were you never off your feet? Did you have to run from dogs? Did you walk up steep hills and slippery staircases? Did you have to conserve your water in the heat?

Look, I'm not saying letter carriers are superhuman and worked like mules but don't assume all walking is walking.

I've worked as a waiter in a busy restaurant where tables were sometimes 1 min apart from each other for 9 hour shifts without breaks and I probably put more miles on there but no way was it anyway near as physical as being a letter carrier.

How long did a pair of shoes last you at your job?

[4X4]

Originally Posted by burnin_vernon

At the gas station were you carrying significant weight for your whole shift? Did you have to stay outside for the entire shift without any breaks from the weather? Were you never off your feet? Did you have to run from dogs? Did you walk up steep hills and slippery staircases? Did you have to conserve your water in the heat?

Look, I'm not saying letter carriers are superhuman and worked like mules but don't assume all walking is walking.

I've worked as a waiter in a busy restaurant where tables were sometimes 1 min apart from each other for 9 hour shifts without breaks and I probably put more miles on there but no way was it anyway near as physical as being a letter carrier.

How long did a pair of shoes last you at your job?

Hey man, I'm just saying that the amount of walking involved isn't necessarily greater than that of tons of other jobs, and therefore, it's not exactly emphasis worthy.

I'm not denying that you walk. A lot. In shiddy weather. Often. But there are LOTS of other jobs that are just the same. No, a squeegee isn't as heavy as a mail bag, but then again, a gas jockey makes about a third what you make.

AFAIC, letter carriers can just stop with the sympathy search over how horrendous their working conditions are, because it's simply not a big deal. OMFG, you walk 15km per day and have to go up hills and up slippery walks and run from dogs.
No, I'm not sympathetic. I have to walk on construction sites all day and worry about hammers falling from higher levels, and slipping in mud and landing on a piece of rebar sticking out from a deck pile, or falling off a ladder. Woe is me.

[burnin_vernon]

I've never met a letter carrier looking for sympathy, or that complains about their job more than the average person but no one likes to be discredited when it comes to their livelihood. Construction is very hard and dangerous work too, and I don't criticize any that make decent money.

[Dan02]

I don't have a issue with $26 a hour, but throw in benefits, a defined-benefit pension, 7 weeks vacation, banked sick days, stupid job security in a changing marketplace and they're currently way overpaid for a unskilled labour position.

How I see it, if the mail delivery was privatized and left for market forces to dictate their wages, they wouldn't be getting anywhere near the total compensation they are.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Dan02

I don't have a issue with $26 a hour, but throw in benefits, a defined-benefit pension, 7 weeks vacation, banked sick days, stupid job security in a changing marketplace and they're currently way overpaid for a unskilled labour position.

How I see it, if the mail delivery was privatized and left for market forces to dictate their wages, they wouldn't be getting anywhere near the total compensation they are.

Would we be paying the same amount for the same service?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Slava

Would we be paying the same amount for the same service?

Privitization would mean we'd pay more for the actual service but you need to also consider all the other costs that get absorbed by the tax payer.

Imagine how much we could be paying for stamps etc if CP employees were more efficient and didn't have ridiculous benefits and a crazy union?

Why do crown corps have to be so incompetent and inefficient?

[Slava]

^well I don't actually know what the costs would be in terms of a Crown Corp vs private? I just have concerns about privatizing what I consider an essential service (despite the rise of email and other electronic options).

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Slava

^well I don't actually know what the costs would be in terms of a Crown Corp vs private? I just have concerns about privatizing what I consider an essential service (despite the rise of email and other electronic options).

And I totally agree with you.

But just because it is a Crown Corp doesn't mean they should be overpaid with ridiculous benefits.

Their salaries should reflect what similar positions in the private sector get paid. I doubt FedEx employees make $26 an hour and get a month off sick per year with crazy ass pensions.

I don't mid them being slightly above average but why the crazy benefits?

[Slava]

I purposefully avoid the wage discussions, particularly on CP. I think that the topic can be summed up in a few short words: "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence."

This applies to the postal workers, teachers and basically every other thread where people think that a job is overpaid and you don't have to do anything do be successful in said job.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Slava

I purposefully avoid the wage discussions, particularly on CP. I think that the topic can be summed up in a few short words: "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence."

This applies to the postal workers, teachers and basically every other thread where people think that a job is overpaid and you don't have to do anything do be successful in said job.

That's kind of a cop out isn't it?

Even though the government may be wasting millions of your hard earned tax dollars every year, you don't care because "who are we to judge"?

I think it is a union problem as much as it is a public sector problem. Just so happens the government is incompetent as it is, and having unions for all of their workers doesn't help.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by PeteLFan

I get 8 sick days a year.

This keeps coming up in this thread, so I will ask those of you with less than 10 sick days per year; do you also have short term disability coverage? I ask because when I started a new job I found out we had a very high number of sick days per year; a number that I thought was quite silly.

Then I found out that we didn't have Short Term Disability; so it made sense. The extra sick days were to cover that mising coverage. I also found that with no ST; our Long Term Disability premiums were a lot more than at my previous job.

I'm not saying I'm siding with the postal union; but anybody who is complaining needs to re-examine what they have themselves. If you aren't doing an "apples to apples" comparison; the numbers are meaningless.

[burnin_vernon]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

That's kind of a cop out isn't it?

Even though the government may be wasting millions of your hard earned tax dollars every year, you don't care because "who are we to judge"?

I think it is a union problem as much as it is a public sector problem. Just so happens the government is incompetent as it is, and having unions for all of their workers doesn't help.

"...the Corporation celebrated its 15th straight year of profitability last year. A record profit in fact, to the tune of 319 million dollars. CPC also managed to scrape together 379 million dollars to spend on new equipment and buildings in 2009, with another 528 million dollars planned for 2010. The Corporation is also talking about borrowing massive amounts of money, up to 2.5 billion dollars, in order to finance its ambitious modern post initiatives in hopes of achieving 250 million dollars in annual efficiencies"

Ya, they're really wasting your hard earned tax dollars.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

That's kind of a cop out isn't it?

Even though the government may be wasting millions of your hard earned tax dollars every year, you don't care because "who are we to judge"?

I think it is a union problem as much as it is a public sector problem. Just so happens the government is incompetent as it is, and having unions for all of their workers doesn't help.

I don't think it's a cop out though. You already said that you think private would cost more, and you know that we aren't given a choice between a crown corp and a 2% tax reduction....it's spent money. So basically why not have it operate as a crown corp. and preserve it as an essential service?

The part I'm not getting into is the number of sick days or how much per hour. CP has no sympathy for anyone doing a job other their own! Frankly I've used more than 23 sick days this year...and I used to be the guy who received awards for not missing any days...life happens.

As far as how much peole get paid, I just don't think its very much money. I know that many would like to see them paid minimum wage or something near that though...

[Flames in 07]

All I know is that the strike made me move the last of my regular mail to emails. All this strike has done is accelerated CanadaPost's best before date.

Mail service could disappear and I wouldn't even notice.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by burnin_vernon

"...the Corporation celebrated its 15th straight year of profitability last year. A record profit in fact, to the tune of 319 million dollars. CPC also managed to scrape together 379 million dollars to spend on new equipment and buildings in 2009, with another 528 million dollars planned for 2010. The Corporation is also talking about borrowing massive amounts of money, up to 2.5 billion dollars, in order to finance its ambitious modern post initiatives in hopes of achieving 250 million dollars in annual efficiencies"

Ya, they're really wasting your hard earned tax dollars.

What a moronic assertion.

If they didn't waste so much of our tax dollars they would have made a billion years.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

What a moronic assertion.

If they didn't waste so much of our tax dollars they would have made a billion years.

Couldn't you say that about every single company in Canada though, that if they were more effective they would make more money? The fact is their profits are increasing contrary to what everyone here seems to be saying. I am not associated with Canada Post at all and I think that them serving quasi-strike notice will only hurt them in the short and long term as they won't make up the money they will lose.

[PeteLFan]

Originally Posted by ken0042

This keeps coming up in this thread, so I will ask those of you with less than 10 sick days per year; do you also have short term disability coverage? I ask because when I started a new job I found out we had a very high number of sick days per year; a number that I thought was quite silly.

Then I found out that we didn't have Short Term Disability; so it made sense. The extra sick days were to cover that mising coverage. I also found that with no ST; our Long Term Disability premiums were a lot more than at my previous job.

I'm not saying I'm siding with the postal union; but anybody who is complaining needs to re-examine what they have themselves. If you aren't doing an "apples to apples" comparison; the numbers are meaningless.

Yes I get st and lt disability.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Zevo

The doctor my wife works for billed close to a million dollars last year.

What with the 4-5 weeks he takes off every summer, the two week vacations every christmas, the big house, fancy boat...must be hell.

Oh, and he works monday to friday.

And yes I do know it's 12 years of schooling before someone brings it up.

Not saying doctors have it easy or that it's a cake walk, but it's apples and oranges comparing doctors to mail carriers as one poster did, which is how this all got brought up.

Your right it is apples and oranges, considering the knowledge that a doctor needs to aquire, the fact that they pretty much hold a patients life in their hands, and a single mistake not only can cost them a life, but a career path.

And I would assume that your wife's employer is a gp.

Doctors to me earn every single penny and perk that they get.

[JustAnotherGuy]

Originally Posted by ken0042

This keeps coming up in this thread, so I will ask those of you with less than 10 sick days per year; do you also have short term disability coverage? I ask because when I started a new job I found out we had a very high number of sick days per year; a number that I thought was quite silly.

Then I found out that we didn't have Short Term Disability; so it made sense. The extra sick days were to cover that mising coverage. I also found that with no ST; our Long Term Disability premiums were a lot more than at my previous job.

I'm not saying I'm siding with the postal union; but anybody who is complaining needs to re-examine what they have themselves. If you aren't doing an "apples to apples" comparison; the numbers are meaningless.

I understand how that works. The problem I see is that some people seem to think they should be rewarded for not using up all of the sick days. But to me it is an insurance for sickness. Otherwise it has no value.

[Sylvanfan]

Try drafting...no sick days, and no ST or LT disability, or benefits. Fart we're lucky if we can get paid the full amount of the pitiful wages our employers promise us....and we can only dream of ever making $26 an hour, and thats with no freaking benefits or vacation pay.

Hopefully they resolve this strike, and start hiring because I know someone who needs a new job.