Postal Workers Stop Delivery of Ad Mail
As of 12:01 September 15, postal workers across the country are escalating their strike action against Canada Post. Postal workers will neither process nor deliver unaddressed flyers (Neighbourhood Mail).
If this action continues The Review will not be mailed for the October edition. We will be looking for volunteers and spaces to help distribute the Review.
Neighbourhood Mail consists of a program divided into two parts with items that you can cancel arriving in your mailbox and the items that will still be mailed to you.
Consumers’ Choice program
When you choose to be part of the Consumers’ Choice program, here are some examples of items that we will not deliver:
- Flyers and restaurant menus
- Free product samples and coupons
- Unaddressed magazines and store catalogues
- Notices from non-profit organizations
- Offers from banking institutions and telecommunications services
Even if you choose to be part of the Consumers’ Choice program, we will continue to deliver:
- Community newspapers (without commercial inserts/enclosures) – only inserts in the public interest are acceptable - Blue Mountains Review
- Mailings in the public interest from government departments and agencies at the federal, provincial, territorial and municipal levels, as well as band councils
- Materials from Elections Canada, provincial/territorial chief electoral officers and municipal election officials (or the deputy returning officer), including material from political parties and electoral candidates during an election
- Any addressed mail, including addressed advertising materials
In the coming months, critical decisions about the future of Canada Post are going to be made. As posted on its “Consulting with Canadians” website, the Federal Government wants to “redefine” its “vision” for Canada Post to reflect a changing “postal industry landscape”. The notice goes as far as to call into question Canada Post’s very “sustainability”.
The federal government is about to launch a review of its vision of Canada Post, and is seeking public input to “get a pulse” on the use of postal services by Canadians. Government says if engagement is necessary, the goal will be to obtain views from Canadians and those who use and rely on the service to “redefine” government’s “service-oriented vision for Canada Post.”
The premise, according to the Government of Canada, is that the postal needs of Canadians have changed and the volume of mail and letters has dropped to the point where the corporation’s sustainability has been undermined.
CUP-W says what Canada Post is looking for are cutbacks, and working conditions and job security are at stake. The union says the company has already laid out its plan in a submission to the Industrial Inquiry Commission. It includes franchising out and closing corporate post offices, cutting letter mail service standards and the frequency of delivery, and eliminating door-to-door delivery in favour of community mail boxes. The federal review begins October 1st and runs through to the end of March.