Is it time to get rid of Canada Post? No! It’s time to strip them of their Crown Corporation Status! – October 19, 2018
The problem with Canada Post is the problem with Unionizing Crown Corporations, you can have one or the other you shouldn’t have both. Below is one of the best mainstream articles regarding Canada Post that I’ve read in a long time
Is it time to get rid of Canada Post?
The problem with Canada Post is as clear as day if you look at the numbers, they don’t have to be competitive. Canada Post is a crown corporation, Crown Corporations in Canada have special protections that other corporations don’t. I’m not against Crown Corporations entirely, but I am against Unions being able to form around crown corporations.
The Union in Canada Post has been the most destructive union in the Canadian economy. Mail delivery in Canada is artificially expensive, primarily because of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) whose demands for their workers aren’t based on any market fundamentals. CUPW typically uses Canada Post profits as their reasoning for pushing for more money.
Now, obviously, when you have a monopoly or no competition you’re going to be profitable on paper because you have to remember that the reason Canada Post is profitable is that they’ve been raising prices on their customers for years for delivering the exact same services. Furthermore, Canada Post which is a Crown Corporation has its own Private deals in place with private companies like ePacket.
ePacket is one of the reasons Chinese manufacturers have an unfair advantage in the Canadian marketplace, this goes relatively unnoticed by Canadians, of course, Canada Post has a lot of these deals in place, which isn’t fair for Canadian businesses or consumers but Canada Post a CROWN CORPORATION does it anyway.
This has a severely negative effect on the Canadian economy because in a digital age Canadian businesses aren’t competitive, think of this way, even Amazon has found a way to minimize its reliance on Canada Post and a lot of Canadian companies have been forced into selling in bulk in order to remain competitive.
Now, as many people are aware because Canada Post has a monopoly on certain types of deliveries, which forces the private couriers to be creative. This is not to say that UPS, DHL, FedEx and others would lower prices if Canada Post disappeared, however, chances are other companies would be happy to fill the void if Canada Post was forced to compete in the free market.
Canada Posts Defined benefit pension plan disaster! How CUPW may cause Canada Post workers to lose their pensions
Canada Post’s workforce is bloated and there’s no reason to shrink it and the primary concern for Canada Post are its unfunded liabilities. So every year there are people at Canada Post who are retiring, to really understand Canada Post’s future problems is to understand Canada Posts Defined benefit pension plan. To read more about Canada Posts employees Defined benefit pension plan click the link below:
The Canada Post Defined benefit pension plan
Do you know what a Defined benefit pension plan is? If you don’t in simple to understand words a Defined benefit pension plan does not depend on how much the members contribute or how well pension fund investments perform. To understand this in greater depth when participating in a defined benefit pension plan, an employer promises to pay its employee a pre-determined financial formula for life beginning at retirement. There currently are Canada Post retirees enjoying this benefit right now.
The problem with a defined benefit pension plan is that it’s a Ponzi/Pyramid Scheme, new money is needed to pay those already retired, that new money has to come from the profits Canada Post makes, if there’s no profit for Canada Post their pensioners are screwed, that’s why Canada Post has been reluctant to give anyone a pay raise.
The reason why most pensions are highly dependent on the stock market is that Defined benefit pension plans don’t work when a company begins to lose money. This is why Canada Post made sure to monopolize postal operations in Canada. They have too and they have to raise prices on customers in order to fund their pensions. So as an example if CUPW gets what they want, Canada Post has to raise prices on customers, which was ok in the past because they were needed, people needed to get their checks via Canada Post. But one day someone came up with this bright idea called Direct Deposit all of sudden overnight Canada Post became useless.
The next thing that happened was the internet, which made using Canada Post for Advertising essentially useless, furthermore, fax and email and the ability to pay your bills at a bank or online made Canada Post even more useless.
What’s interesting is that Canada Post could have saved itself had it built itself around e-commerce, but they’ve priced themselves out of e-commerce, if let’s say Canadians wanted to do what’s common in the United States which is selling dollar store cheap small items online, it’s not profitable in Canada, however, it’s still extremely profitable for Chinese people to sell their dollar store or cheap items to Canadians.
The reason is that in China their courier industry is extremely competitive they have many different options, In Canada we have 1 option it’s called Canada Post and because we have 1 option, Canada Post can charge Canadians anything they want so an entire industry that could turn a lot of Canadians into successful entrepreneurs and give hard-working Canada Post employees a pay raise doesn’t exist, can’t exist and will never exist as long as the dinosaur in the room remains there.
Why don’t I agree with Crown Corporation Unions? Because Unions and government don’t mix, the reason why Canada has become so corporatist is that unions in so many different economic sectors have merged with the Canadian government (“supply management”). Unions belong in the PRIVATE SECTOR! Do you know what a Crown Corporation is?
Crown corporations of Canada = Canadian Crown corporations are state-owned enterprises owned by the Sovereign of Canada.
If a corporation is state-owned meaning it belongs to the people a union is a disruptor in that relationship as it’s the union’s job to look out for the EMPLOYEES BEST INTERESTS! not the interests of the “state”. This is why Argentina has so many economic problems and why I keep warning Canadians we’re heading for economic disaster if we don’t change soon!
I’ve seen this story happen already, there’s going to be a Pension Crisis at Canada Post and a lot of people are going to have no idea why or how it happened. The blame will put on Canada Post’s management, but the truth is the problem is CUPW, the employees not adapting to the new world and the fact that their entire existence is dependent on raising prices on the Canadian consumer.
This may have worked, prior to Canada Posts reliance on e-commerce, however, in this era, The writing is on the wall for Canada Post unless changes are made soon there will be a Pension Crisis coming to Canada Post.
Interesting times ahead
The problem with your article, is that it is clearly unresearched. You are relying on media hype only. The pension you are talking about is NOT in any trouble financially, as there are more employees paying into it than there are retired employees collecting it. You forgot that little detail. There only becomes an issue when the pensions become UNDEFINED, and the employer or government is given the power to borrow from it.
As for unions themselves being destructive… HOW is a union destructive when it fights for safe working conditions, safe work equipment, demanding not to be overloaded with work or forced into unwanted overtime without consent? How is it destructive for women to want to be paid equally as men? How is it destructive to want a corporation to be responsible to the environment? Have you actually read the union’s demands they are currently negotiating? I challenge you to strap on a mail satchel and do the job for 3 months in heavy winter conditions, to drive a rural route in a Grumman during a snowstorm for a few weeks, and then sit down and rewrite this article. I am betting it would be a much different read.
HOW is a union destructive when it fights for safe working conditions, safe work equipment, demanding not to be overloaded with work or forced into unwanted overtime without consent?
-You’re not forced to do anything, we live in a free country! You have the right to quit
How is it destructive for women to want to be paid equally as men?
Women have the right to quit a job and boycott a business if they feel they’re not being paid what they’re worth! Nobody is forcing women to work for Canada Post! If Canada Post is being mismanaged which I believe it is those women should quit and then sue! We live in a free country, we have fantastic human rights in this country and a supposed feminist prime minister I think women are approaching this situation incorrectly by using the union to force Canada Post to pay more money. If Canada Post isn’t willing to pay women more money those women she quit and sue!
How is it destructive to want a corporation to be responsible to the environment?
Boycott corporations who aren’t responsible for the environment, people have been doing this for years, we live in a voluntary society, where humans have the ability to vote with their dollars, we don’t need the government to do everything for us, QUIT! leave, find a better opportunity, if women can’t quit because they’re having financial hardship they should ask themselves why? The reason people don’t quit their jobs is that the cost of living is too high, the cost of living is high in Canada because of government intervention. Prices at Canda Post are extremely high because they have a monopoly on courier services in Canada, Canada Post is a major reason why our economy is struggling and in my opinion, you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution. A unions job is to look out for their employees, unions should NEVER BE ALLOWED IN FEDERAL CROWN CORPORATIONS!
Have you actually read the union’s demands they are currently negotiating?
Yes, I’ve writing about Canada Post for years, the root cause to why Canada Post can’t pay women is outlined in this post, they’re inefficiently run, because there’s no incentive for them to be efficient. The root cause to Canada Posts problems is that they’re a unionized Crown Corporation! There is no money left if they pay these women what these women believe they’re worth Canada Post will have to raise prices on Canadian customers, Canada Post’s profit margins have already been sliced and diced by the private sector because Canada Post is mismanaged, Canada Post is mismanaged because there’s no incentive for them to be properly managed, in the event Canada Post goes bankrupt, as Crown Corporation more than likely they’ll be bailed out in some compacity by the taxpayers. Tax Payers, Canadians, in general, are getting screwed over by Canada Post and they’re one of the major contributors to Canada’s collapsing economy. A business person from China gets more discounts mailing items to Canada than Canadians businesses get mailing parcels within Canada’s borders, and women are wondering why Canada Post isn’t paying them more? This is common sense, Canada Post has no money, they have a Defined benefit pension plan which is nothing more than Pyramid scheme, if you support an immoral business you shouldn’t be surprised when they treat women unfairly.
I challenge you to strap on a mail satchel and do the job for 3 months in heavy winter conditions, to drive a rural route in a Grumman during a snowstorm for a few weeks, and then sit down and rewrite this article. I am betting it would be a much different read.
No, I refuse to work for an immoral company, I’d rather be self-employed thank you! Canada is a free country nobody is forcing these women to work for less than they believe they’re worth. People have the freedom to quit, women have rights in this country and if their rights aren’t being respected they can sue!