Canada Post workers vote on strike mandate, Crown Corporations and their Monopolies – September 10, 2018,

There’s no incentive to be efficient when you’re a crown corporation of Canada. You can’t make any cutbacks, you must adhere to the demands of the unionized workers and there’s always extra money to spend on entitlements when you’re a crown corporation of Canada. Canadians will find out as early as September 10, 2018, whether they’ll face a possible strike later this month by mail carriers and plant workers at Canada Post.

If you know anything about the mail cartel that is Canada Post, you’ll understand that Canada Post whether you like it or not is a profitable business, what’s not profitable however are all their unfunded liabilities. According to The Canadian Press article, the problem is this

A pay equity dispute involving the carriers’ 8,000 rural and 42,000 urban workers has been at the heart of the negotiations.

However that’s not the real problem, the real problem are the other demands of Canada Post workers, in the real world there’s something called give and take, as an example if Canada Post wasn’t a Crown Corporation the easy answer to this problem would be to discontinue the 8,000 rural and 42,000 urban workers or force customers who live in these areas to pay more for the service. But you see, if Canada Post were to do this, they wouldn’t have a monopoly now, would they. If let’s say an Uber-type service by that a mean a private entity independent of Canada post, Canada post workers and somehow managed to do that job more efficiently there would questions regarding the need of Canada post entirely.

But you see the real problem is that Canada Post has it hands on almost everything carrier related in Canada, if you’re a private courier doing international trade you have to go through Canada Post, which is something as a private courier you have to take into account, which is why if you go to FedEx, UPS or DHL you’ll notice their fees are almost always higher than Canada Posts? What FedEx, UPS, and DHL can do however is ship packages faster, but they can’t realistically compete with the Canadian Crown Corporation known as Canada Post.

Which is why Canadian union representing Canada Post workers CUPW or Canadian Union of Postal Workers always has point when they make their arguments. The Canadian economies growth is highly influenced by Canada Post, I’ve often made the argument that Canada Post is one of the main contributors to the lagging Canadian economy. Canadian small companies can’t compete internationally because of Canada posts high fees. As I stated early FedEx, UPS, and DHL cannot compete with Canada Post’s pricing, all they can do is promise to deliver a package faster.

This monopoly Canada Post has on the courier industry is passed onto Canadian business and Canadian consumers and it’s only right that Canadian Post workers demand more. What Canada Post and most of the other Provincial and Federal Crown Corporations in Canada symbolize to me is how Argentina ended up in the situation they’re in today. Being that Canada Post is a crown corporation it allows them the autonomy to form a union while at the same time having a close connection with Federal government.

In Argentina, more than 30% of the citizens work for the government, so money doesn’t matter anymore in Argentina, why because 30% of the countries income is monopolized by the public servants. This means that at best only 70% of the country can be private sector and in countries like this the public sectors will make sure that the private sector will always need to the public sector to sustain itself. From an outside investors perspective this is pure madness, so Argentina gets little to no outside investment, furthermore the private sector within Argentina is reluctant to grow in fears more of their business will be heavily regulated. This Fascist fueled approach to economics is only functional if the country in question has a powerful military.

In the United States people have called Donald Trump a Fascist, although I don’t think Donald Trump is a racist a lot of his protectionist policies are rather Fascists in nature. A big military allows a country to force its bad economic policies on other nations. Trump is currently using tariffs as a means to make other countries come to their knees and negotiate, it’s all good if Trumps doing it because Trumps aims is for free trade, but if left unattended these same policies being created by Trump under democratic rule could be proven to be catastrophic for the U.S economic.

When it comes to Canada Post their monopoly is the problem, the fact they’re a Crown Corporation is the problem, being that they don’t have to be competitive is the problem, the understanding that making cutting backs is in most instances not an option gives the Canadian Union of Postal Workers the right to strike. There’s is never any incentive for an employee of a government-controlled enterprise to be efficient with how they spend their money. Something needs to be done about Canada Post. You can read more about this issue by clicking the links below:

• Canada Post ‘job action’ possible by Sept. 26 if workers approve strike mandate
• Canada Post strike or lockout possible later this month
• Canada Post workers vote on strike mandate
• Canada Post workers consider possible strike over pay equity dispute

Interesting times ahead