Canada Post said Tuesday it had cut an undisclosed number of positions as part of its government-mandated restructuring efforts and a goal to “coordinate our management team.”
The company said the changes “will be in line with government expectations that leadership and structural changes within the corporation are important,” along with a series of reforms to the cash-strapped company's mail delivery service announced last month.
“This is part of our corporate-wide restructuring efforts to better align our management team with the future needs of the organization,” the company told Canada Post in a statement to Global News.
“Canada Post must take decisive action to provide the services Canadians need in a way that is financially sustainable.”
The company shared a message sent by President and CEO Doug Ettinger to senior Canada Post executives announcing the changes.
“Earlier this week, we informed some of your colleagues that their positions were no longer required,” Ettinger wrote. “These changes are a continuation of our corporate-wide restructuring efforts to better align our management team with the future needs of the organization.
“While these decisions are sometimes necessary, they are never taken lightly.”
Both Ettinger and Canada Post said they would not share specific details as the company continues to work on its “transformation plan” that implements government reforms.
Government Transformation Minister Joël Lightbound on Sept. 25 asked Canada Post to submit a plan within 45 days to shift remaining door-to-door mail delivery to public mailbox services, as well as to close some post offices in areas no longer considered rural. The reforms also include relaxing postal delivery standards.
The minister said the changes will save Canada Post hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The company reported an operating loss of more than $1 billion last year and says it is losing $10 million a day.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), which is in protracted negotiations with Canada Post, has not yet commented on the cuts.
Changes will 'gut' postal service and jobs, unions tell MPs
Earlier Tuesday, leaders of CUPW and the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association (CPAA) called on MPs on the House of Commons government operations committee to hold public consultations on the future of Canada Post before moving forward with reforms.
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The changes announced by Lightbound would “destroy the government post office, eliminate thousands of union jobs and cause real hardship in communities across the country,” CUPW national director Ian Simpson told the committee.
Canada Post has said it intends to reduce its overall workforce as part of its transformation, but reiterated Tuesday that those cuts would be achieved primarily through attrition – a claim that CUPW disputes.
Both unions agreed that changes were needed at Canada Post, but disagreed with the company and the government on what those changes should be.
CUPW said Canada Post has not been honest about the causes of its financial problems, noting that resolving the labor dispute could help stabilize operations as well as reduce non-labor operating expenses.
Some MPs were surprised when the union also pointed out a “conflict of interest” over its majority stake in Canada Post's Purolator, which made a pre-tax profit of $294 million last year despite Canada Post's $841 million loss overall. The discrepancy contradicts Canada Post's claims of declining parcel delivery revenue and market share, CUPW said.
“You're shocked because you haven't talked to the union,” said CUPW negotiator Jim Gallant. “And parliamentarians are starting to talk to the union and that's what needs to happen because nothing Canada Post tells you is true.
“The Post has not been sincere with parliamentarians and the government.”
Lightbound defended government reforms in committee last weekinsisting that “fundamental” postal services for rural, remote and Indigenous communities will be maintained under the changes. He said the measures were a “first step” to properly sizing the company, which has become too large to accommodate the postal decline.
On Tuesday, Simpson said Ottawa should reverse the changes and instead have “real consultation” with Canadians about what the post office's future should look like.
CPAA national president Dwayne Jones said the government should extend the time frame for Canada Post to report on reforms to 100 days and maintain a moratorium on post office closures during that time, as well as hold public consultations.
He said there are several other ways Canada Post can modernize and generate revenue, including through government and financial services and even electric vehicle charging stations that could turn post offices in smaller communities into “community hubs.”
The Postmasters Union has called on Ottawa to set a minimum access distance standard to ensure there are no gaps as a result of post office closures or delivery cuts.
However, when lawmakers asked what that standard should be, Jones declined to give an exact figure and said it would depend on the specific needs of each jurisdiction.
Other witnesses Tuesday called on Canada Post to continue needed reforms and for the company and CUPW to reach an agreement to restore mail delivery service.
Paul Deegan, President and CEO of News Media Canada said: trade union ban on delivery of leaflets and other unaddressed mail earlier this year dealt a blow to community newspapers across the country that depend on the service.
However, he acknowledged that stopping door-to-door delivery could be “devastating” for those same local journalists.
Canada Post and CUPW will meet this week
Canada Post confirmed to Global News that the company and CUPW will meet with a federal mediator later this week for their first talks in nearly a month.
The meeting date has not yet been set.
The two parties have not met since Canada Post unveiled an updated proposal Oct. 3 that the union said largely reworked elements of a proposal rejected by union members over the summer.
Simpson told MPs that Ottawa has “obstructed” CUPW's pursuit of a fair deal with interim measures such as announced reforms and sending previous Canada Post proposals to a union vote, as well as the back-to-work order that ended last year's strike.
“Instead of real negotiations, Canada Post management has relied on frequent government intervention to push through its own agenda,” she said.
CUPW members have been on the picket line for more than a month, but switched to a rotating strike model about two weeks after the nationwide strike, which occurred within hours of Lightbound's announcement in September.
— With files from The Canadian Press.
