‘Heroes to zeros’: Postal workers not surprised as mediation talks suspended

It’s more bad news for the Canada Post strike.

On top of bone-chilling weather, talks between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have been suspended.

James Domanski, a Canada Post employee in Regina, said he’s not surprised by the news.

“We’ve been negotiating with Canada Post for over a year right now, and they’ve been sitting on their hands this entire time,” he said on the picket line.

“They’re waiting for the government to bail them out and legislate us back to work instead of negotiating a fair agreement with us at the table.”

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Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon summoned the two groups to his office Wednesday as federal mediation to end the nearly two-week old strike isn’t working. MacKinnon said the special mediator appointed to help end the labour dispute tells him the two sides are too far apart on critical issues for mediation to currently be of use.

Domanski said Canada Post employees want to get back to work and get things moving again for the upcoming holiday season.

“I want us to get an agreement at the table,” he said. “I want Canada Post to negotiate with us in good faith. I want them to recognize that our jobs are valuable.”

He said workers are fighting for better wages, safe working conditions and to protect their pensions.

As cars drive by the picket line, many are responding with honks and waves.

Domanski said the support from the public keeps them going, but he admitted that there are some misconceptions out there.

He said Canada Post isn’t telling the full truth.

“They say that they’ve lost $800 million (but) they don’t talk about the investments that they were making,” he said. “They don’t talk about the Albert Jackson plant in Scarborough, Ontario that cost $470 million. We don’t talk about the brand new fleet of electric vehicles. We don’t talk about executive bonuses.

“They were called were strategic investments. They’re now calling them losses today, and all of that’s incredibly disappointing,” he added. “They have a lot of money for (those) things, but when it comes to paying us, all of a sudden they don’t have money for that.”

Domanski said this has caused a painful divide between the company and it’s employees.

“We worked through the entire pandemic, and the corporation would put up signs saying that heroes work here,” he said. “When we’re out here on the picket line, it’s kind of heroes to zeros. Being treated that way doesn’t feel great.”

Domanski said sometimes people assume working with mail is easy and workers are in it for the money. He said this just isn’t true.

“Nothing about this job is easy,” he said.

“People working in the plants on graveyard shifts, our letter carriers out here in the frigid weather, we are out here every day doing our jobs. To have that be characterized as we’re lazy, greedy workers, it’s incredibly tough to hear. We’re fighting for living wages.

“Nobody is getting rich working at the post office.”

Another employee, Greg Schaffer, echoed Domanski’s comments, saying he’s upset to hear about the end of mediation, though he isn’t surprised either.

“I think the corporation can do better than what they’re doing,” he said. “They’re not being true to Canadians… They’re dragging it out and leaving us out here.”

He said employees deserve a livable wage and safe working conditions.

“People have lives,” Shcaffer said. “People need to pay rent, pay for their food. It shouldn’t be about the race to the bottom that we hear so much about.”

Schaffer said Canada Post has an opportunity to step up.

“I don’t want to compete against a slave company like Amazon,” he said. “I want everybody in Canada to do better and Canada Post should do better.”

Keeping warm in the cold

Things won’t warm up for those on the picket lines in Saskatchewan until next week, but the frigid weather hasn’t put a damper on morale.

“When you hear those honks in the background, that’s what’s keeping morale up,” Domanski said.

“It’s public support. It’s the people who are coming out here who are dropping off coffee and donuts, that’s really what’s keeping us going.”

The employees also set up tarps, and have rented heaters and a U-Haul to keep warm.

They also work in four-hour shifts, but Domanski said picketers will often stick around longer than that.

“We’re out here in the morning. We’re out here at night,” he said. “We’re all kind of rotating in. We want a strong presence in the morning. We want a strong presence at rush hour.”

—with files from The Canadian Press