Letter to Rob Merrifield, Minister of State of Transport

Rob Merrifield, Minister of State of Transport
Place de Ville,
Tower C, 29^th Floor
330 Sparks Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0N5

 

Dear Mr. Merrifield;

I would like to congratulate you on your election. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) is very eager to meet with you and begin what we hope will be an honest and open dialogue on the future of our public postal system.

As you may know from the many letters we sent to your predecessor, CUPW would like to meet with you in your capacity as Minister Responsible for Canada Post to discuss a variety of postal issues, including the ongoing strategic review of Canada Post.

Former minister responsible Lawrence Cannon took the position that he could not meet to discuss the strategic review of Canada Post because he had to respect the corporation’s autonomy with regard to union-management relations. A meeting on the review would in no way contravene this autonomy. The government is responsible for providing broad policy direction to Canada Post and has initiated the strategic review to help it develop this direction. The union has asked to meet because it has questions and concerns about this review.

For example, why didn’t the strategic review include public hearings like a similar review in the United States? Will people have an opportunity to respond to inaccurate information provided to the review? When will the report of the Canada Post Corporation Strategic Review be released to the public? Why has the strategic review been asked to consider deregulation? It hasn’t really worked in other countries. Overall, full-scale deregulation has led to less service, fewer jobs and higher postal rates for people and small businesses.

I would like to point out that our concerns about deregulation are shared by a majority of people in both rural and urban areas of our country, according to a recent Ipsos-Reid national poll.

I look forward to having the opportunity to discuss these matters with you.

Yours truly,

Denis Lemelin
National President
Canadian Union of Postal Workers

 

Cc:

All CUPW locals
National Executive Board, CUPW
Regional Executive Committee, CUPW 
Regional Union Representatives, CUPW 
National Union Representatives, CUPW 
Specialists, CUPW    
All members of Parliament
Gilles Duceppe, Leader, Bloc Quebecois
Stephen Harper, Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada
Jack Layton, Leader, New Democratic Party
Stéphane Dion, Leader, Liberal Party
Leslie Schous, President, Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association
Richard Des Lauriers, President, Union of Postal Communications Employees, Public Service Alliance of Canada
John Baird, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities