Dear Mr Prime Minister

I work for Canada post. Sort of. See, I just got promoted to part time but, well you can read below all about that “but.”

See I started as Christmas helper. But that offered me no real job, just some money to help out at Christmas. Then 5 months later, they offered me a real job, or so I thought, but it was not really a job. It was a position as a temporary employee. Meaning, I got little to no work for long periods of time, only called in as needed. They say in HR to keep your second job, even as the supervisors say “No” you should only work at Canada Post. In fact, many of the people hired when I was, quit to find other jobs that paid them a regular salary or 40 hours of paid work. As I got up the ladder in seniority, three long years to climb it, I was finally appointed, just last month, to a part time position. Can you imagine any job that takes three years to get just to part time? Not yet full time, just part time. To get a full time job, they tell me could take another two years. And what a lofty position this part time job is, I only get 20 hours a week which works out to a little less that 300$ per week. But the co0rperation says even that is too much.

I went to pay my bills today. Sadly, had to cut corners, as I did not make enough money last pay to afford everything I had to pay this time. Can you imagine that? A civil servant, living high off the fatted cow, did not making enough money? I make 300$ or less net per week. My parents were middle class. Now, better educated then they were, I have 5 university degrees, including 2 Master of Arts and with a “good” job the Government of Canada, I have fallen, along with the rest of Canada from such middling aspirations. The middle class no longer exists. Good thing I am used to living off my credit cards because that is how I afford to make ends meet. Those bank card are where the profits from my interest goes to private banks, not the general good or the general public as postal banking might help us all out with. But I guess since the Deepak Chopra is the President and CEO of Canada Post, this idea won’t happen. After all, the private sector banking might not like it if there was a bank in rural communities that did not start with the phrase “Pay Day Loans”. Or if people who want to work, actually earned enough to pay off their bills and get out of debt and could afford to think of themselves as middle class. I guess that sort of middle class Canadian dream died on the order paper in Harper’s government agenda to Americanise Canada to more business friendly country. Tory times are hard times. Don’t worry, they tell me that 23% interest is a fair rate for long term credit card debt.

I checked out my projected retirement income using a projection calculator offered by Canada Post. I cheated on what I filled the form in with. I imputed the amount of a full time employee, as if I were suddenly promoted to full time, as if… (Remember they say another 2 or more years for that.) What I would earn when I retired at the age of 71 after 25 years of service? Almost what I am earning now per week, only per month. They tell me that Canada Post has to cut my luxurious pension even more with this round of contract negotiations. This Cadillac of pension plans is too rich to sustain itself. I would work more and longer than age 71 but they say I cannot. I have to take my pension at 71. Now like Peter Mackay, former Tory Defense Minister, he will get 150 000$ per year starting from age 55 and on for the rest of his life.  It would take me 500 months or near 42 years to earn that much money he will earn per year. Good thing he gets that all free from the Canadian Tax Payers. I guess there are two classes of people. Former Tories and their rich friends and the working poor who’s pension are just too luxurious to afford any longer. Tory times are hard times, unless you are part of the elect of Tory inner circles.

What would I know about paying taxes, since I don’t earn really enough to pay taxes? You would think working for the federal government; I would earn a decent living. Perhaps to dream of being middle class? But since Tory times are hard times, there is no more decent living to be had in Canada, unless you get a bonus. How much does Canada Post pay out in bonuses? I know I am surely not getting any. They only go to rich. Being working poor, you would think after 3 years I would be somewhat better off. But it’s so hard to make any money with so few hours! The corporation does not want to offer too many full time jobs. After all, then people might earn a living. My salary won’t go up either. Wages are too high as it. They have a deficit. Except they earned a profit last year. But none the less wages are too high! They keep cutting jobs, no more full time position to be had, only part time and they want to cut those as well. Part time to be flexible, so flexible they don’t even care about the people doing those jobs. That is their problem, not Canada Post’s problem. In fact, at Canada Post, they want to cut my old wages as a temporary employee to one salary for the length of the contract, to make the poor people who take those jobs even more hard pressed. They also want to reduce vacation from three weeks to two weeks, what would I know about taking a vacation? As a temp, I never took vacation, if I did not work, I did not get paid. That would be where the work part of working poor comes in. But with the contract being negotiated, (sorry Canada Post is not interested in negotiating, they are just waiting to illegally lock us out again then get punitive back to work legislation) Canada Post wants to remove all that and more including my paid lunch. Well, the paid lunch that a full timer gets. I don’t get one being part time. I bring in a muffin. I make it from home. I cannot afford to eat out much. Not like the executive dinning that President Chopra and the 23 executive Vice Presidents get.  This is sad, because my local restaurants are all struggling with the same problem. Too many working poor, not enough people spending money on take out or dinning. No one can afford to eat out any more. Tory times are hard times.

I suppose I should smile but as a temporary employee I don’t qualify for benefits like dental. So I have not seen my dentist in years. Cause any sort of benefit is too good for us. In fact, nothing is too good for us and that is exactly what we get… Nothing. Tory times and all that…

I hear that Canada Post made a profit the last few years. Which is strange because it was not too long ago that a think tank, (ask President Chopra what the name is, since he is a member, I am sure long since forgotten by everyone else) said Canada Post would be losing a billion dollars a year by now. They earned a profit every year since that report came out. With friends like that, publishing a such tripe bias hit piece to start the ball rolling for back to work legislation with the last Tory government. Just like they are trying to do now. Just like they did last time, make a series of impossible demand that force a strike call. When the workers act collectively, the corporation illegally locks them out so said the arbiter in our collective grievance. Then the Tory government passes an illegal back to work law in Parliament (Again as an Ontario Judge has said no less in June of this year) that takes away 1% of wages that the corporation had already agreed to in negotiations just for Tory spite. How nasty is that? The corporation offers an increase that the Tories legislate away from the workers… I wonder if they took away anyone’s bonus like that. Or retirement plan? Took the union many years before a judge ruled that law unconstitutional.  And rightly so! But since we are not part of the elite, the rich or in bed with the Tories, those of us who are working poor, that would be the majority of Canadians, we just don’t count as being important enough to get a fair deal.

See Prime Minister; they are trying to do the same thing now. Force the workers to strike. Lock them out then run to you for back to work legislation. That is unfair. And worse, they tried it before and lost in the courts. How many more times will they use the same play book? When will they start to fairly negotiate a fair deal with the worker that actually improves the lives of so many Canadians?

As you know, North Carolina passed a horrible bill to limit the accessibility to toilets for transgender people. What did we do in Canada? Your government enshrined the rights of transgendered people into our human rights legislation. In Quebec, with the full approval of the opposition parties, yes more than one opposition party all agreed to allow transgender people the right to change their school name and sex in order to allow them a better chance at assimilation in high school. Can you see the difference between Donald Trump’s America and Canada? Where would you put Canada Post and their present administration on that scale? Are they going to do the right thing? The fair thing? The Canadian way? Or will they resort to crushing the working poor with illegal lock out and unconstitutional back to work legislation in Parliament.

Tory times are hard times. You are a liberal. Will you follow the old model of nasty hate? Or is it 2016, and times they are a changing?

In 1949, you father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, covered the strike by mine workers at Thetford Mines. Where Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis sided with the rich mine owners, to send in his goon squads to break the union. Your father stood with the worker and went on to be a force of good for the people Canada, all the people of Canada, not just the wealthy elites but for the working poor. So I ask you Prime Minister, when we strike at Canada Post, will you come to do a shift on the picket line? They last 4 hours, twice a week. We get paid 200$ per week. Where will you stand? With whom will you walk with?

 

Edit and updated

Word has just reached us that on July 2, 2016, Canada Post will stop all benefits to employees as a pressure tactic. This unilateral action is not covered in the collective agreement, nor is it allowed in the Canadian Labour Code. In other words, just like it was ruled in Ontario that the previous lock out was illegal, Canada Post will once again turn to illegal acts to intimidate its work force. Why won’t it negotiate a contract fairly?