WRITE TO PM & MP ABOUT EFFECT OF POSTAL STRIKE ON YOU

[momcqueen]

I would like to encourage all eBay users (or at least anyone who comes to the boards) to follow my lead in taking 15 minutes today to compose an email message to the Prime Minister’s Office (ccing your local MP) to explain the effect the prolonged postal strike is having on you, your family, and/or your business.

Even if you can say you don’t care how long the strike lasts and you think free beach houses in Belize should be granted to CUPW leadership, fine. You may write too.

But I, as an online seller, with a meager budget for my own family can endure this no longer and I WILL NOT sit idly by as my livelihood and holiday plans are held hostage.

Forward your message to at least one local media outlet as well. If you dare; they might just want to speak to you about your feelings and think what a great opportunity that’d be to flog Local Pickup.

Thank you.

[postit4me]

When you do contact your MP on this issue make sure you let them know that management of Canada Post also helped create this problem. My neighbor works for Canada Post and has told us two weeks ago that management has not extended their part time workers to 40 hours per week nor do they have any Temporary Christmas Workers on site.  He was telling us that Temporary Workers were working in early October then the rotating strikes started and those workers have not been seen since.  Logically if Canada Post wanted to reduce the effects of the rotating strikes would they not have both part time and temporary workers working 40 hours per week. Maybe if the management of Canada Post was better skilled at their job the stated backlog would not be so profound. The other point I would like to make is CUPW has stated that forced overtime is one of the many reasons they are striking.  These huge stated volumes of parcels in trailers  on a one day shut down would not cause this type of backlog. Some of the major centers have had several days of shut down but still should have not cause these volumes of backlog.  If Canada Post truly wished to minimize the rotating strike impact they would have had full staffing as my point above.  It is sad in this day and age that CUPW have to go on strike to uphold the laws of this nation for equal pay for their members and have to take Canada Post to court for continuing to break  our laws. I wish the postal workers well and thank them for the great job they do for my businesses. 

[momcqueen]

Maybe you missed the warning from CUPW to its workers last week to not accept those shifts.

I’ll find it again and return with the link.

[momcqueen]

Here it is: http://cupw-sttp.ca/overtime2.pdf

Also, I'll direct your attention to an earlier post I made which stated that none of the emails that I sent to the PMO or my MP or the Minister of Labour offered my opinion on the dispute in terms of whose side is right, that's not my decision to make nor my place to offer.

I spoke of the only facts at my possession, not my opinions. My personal facts are my reality and that is as an online seller and a small one at that, I am being squeezed in the middle of a situation I did nothing to create. As I have said from the start, it's the people who are most vulnerable who are being hurt the most in this. 

My family of six is supported by my partner who is entirely self-employed. His income fluctuates with clients and the economy which dictates what those clients can spend on what he offers. We have no health benefits whatsoever. Our household depends on sales from my small ebay store to pay for groceries and electricity and the water bill and tuition. We don't have a dentist or a chiropractor or third-party insurance to pay for prescriptions. He (not me) frequently works every day for four weeks at a time. There is no overtime pay, and no short-term disability in case of injury. We also have no savings of which to speak nor do we have any pensions. If he dropped dead tomorrow, we would be out on the street. I'm not crying the blues, but this is the reality and I am grateful for it. That being said, this is the one time of year that me, as a toy seller, depends on the sales from ebay to see us through the long months ahead and, with four children, you can imagine how much I am faced with in spending in December.

No one is asking CUPW to take any less than what they deserve. 

Those hard-working postal employees could have been back at work with a $1000 signing bonus in their pockets had their union bosses allowed them to vote on the most recent offer Canada Post management made. Instead, they will most likely be forced back without it. Who's accountable for that?

You may write whatever you see fit in your email to the PMO and your MP and the Minister of Labour and I encourage you to do just that. 

I can only speak to what I know and that is my own situation which is what I did.