Canada Post's plans to downsize and cut back on home delivery will have a profound impact on all Canadians, said Jamie West, president of the Sudbury and District Labour Council.
The planned cuts in service, said West, will also result in 5,000 to 8,000 full-time job cuts.
“When you privatize, and you take away these good-paying jobs, and you get them into lower wage jobs, you lose that tax base, you lose the retirement income, you lose the benefits people have,” West said.
West spoke at a public meeting organized by the Sudbury local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) Wednesday night.
Last December Canada post unveiled a five-point plan it said would help it compete even as the volume of mail continues to decline.
“It reflects what the company heard from Canadians during a recent cross-country discussion with residential and business customers,” Canada Post said in a press release at the time. “These discussions confirmed many of the new patterns the company has seen unfolding at its post offices, in its processing plants and in the makeup of the mail.”
Canada Post announced it would end home delivery over the next five years to the five million homes that still receive it, switching them to the community mailboxes that two-thirds of Canadians are already using.
Union members and representatives from local seniors groups voiced their concerns with the changes to mail delivery Wednesday.
Dave Merrick, president of the CUPW Sudbury local, said instead of cutting services Canada Post should expand in order to remain profitable and maintain its current workforce.
That expansion, Merrick said, could include offering banking services at post offices and improving the growing parcel business.
Merrick encouraged citizens concerned about the changes to Canada Post to write to the prime minister and their member of Parliament to voice those concerns.