Community Mail Box Conversion

On December 11, 2013 Canada Post Corporation (CPC) notified the Union about its 5 Point Plan approximately 1 hour prior to sending out a press release. This plan included eliminating door-to-door mail delivery. On February 20, 2014 CPC announced the first 11 communities to lose their door-to-door delivery. The depots situated within these eleven communities are listed below:

DEPOT NAME
Depot N Ottawa
Dartmouth Stn East
Dartmouth Stn Main
Halifax LCD 1
Hamilton Mountain
Hamilton LCD 5
Hamilton LCD 2
Milton LCD
Winnipeg LCD R
Calgary LCD 6
Calgary LCD 18
Windsor Stn Tecumseh
Stratford Stn Main
Tillsonburg Stn Main
Simcoe Stn Main 
Delhi Stn Main
Rouyn Noranda Bureau-Chef, 
St-John’s, NL Depot

The implementation date for these communities is October 20th, 2014. The conversion to CMBs in these communities will impact 99,146 points of call. Canada Post estimated an average reduction of 30% to 35% of its workforce in the depots that are undergoing CMB conversion restructures. The results have shown that number to be closer to 50%. Since the February 20th announcement,

Canada Post has slowly provided the Union with the communities that will see the elimination of door-to-door mail delivery in 2015. The national Union was notified of these locations at the same time as local management made the announcement to the work floor. The only information provided to the union was the name of the depot being converted.

The locations below, slated for conversion, were provided over the previous 5 months.

Canada Post has provided little information to the Union. What we do know through consultation is the following:

• CPC will be converting 5 to 5.5 million points of call, 20% of these will be businesses
• Industrial park areas will automatically retain their current delivery status (door-to-door, LBA, CMB, Panel)
• Indoor shopping malls that currently receive door-to-door delivery to each store will continue to receive the same delivery
• A strip mall in a primarily residential area will likely be converted to CMB delivery
• Apartments receiving door-todoor delivery will be converted to CMB delivery
• Apartments with Lock Box Assemblies or mailrooms will not be converted
• Customer points of call that have been granted accommodation status will only receive delivery to the door on Wednesday every week
• If you have a personal contact item or parcel for an accommodated CMB POC on a day other than the scheduled day of delivery you will not be permitted to bring the regular mail to door
• A reminder for the letter carrier will be attached to the accommodated CMB POC receptacle
• CPC proposed an Interim Standard to deliver to the door for the accommodated CMB POC customer. The Union is reviewing this proposal.
• Through media coverage CPC learned that customers had been notified of the site locations prior to consulting with customers and the municipality. CPC told the Union they will no longer provide 038’s until after consultation with customers and the municipality. CPC will only provide to the Union a list of points of call that will be converted to CMBs. The Union is opposed to these changes and informed CPC that if the 038s are not provided that they would be in violation of article 47.04.

Union members across the country are fighting against this plan to eliminate services and jobs. This plan was concocted by Conservative appointed Deepak Chopra with full support, and likely guidance, by the Federal Conservative government. Therefore, this is a political fight that must be addressed during the next Federal election. Local executives have to speak to their members about the dire consequences of voting for the Conservative Party in the next election. The Conservatives have already legislated CUPW workers back to work through draconian legislation and passed legislation to have a member of Treasury Board sit on the negotiating committee for Canada Post. If the next round of negotiations takes place with a Conservative government in place, postal workers will suffer even more. The national Union is having dialogue with the other parties in an effort to get support to stop the elimination of door-to-door mail delivery. Therefore, the next election, and the result, is critical for our struggle to maintain decent postal service and good jobs across Canada.

Please speak with your members at all of your local general membership meetings to inform the members about this, and if you need assistance or advice please do not hesitate to contact your regional office.

This is the biggest struggle postal workers have faced since the previous Conservative government of Brian Mulroney stated they would close all Corporate post offices across the country, save for 4 in large cities. CUPW launched a similar campaign at that time. The Conservatives were defeated and the first Act of Parliament of the new governing Liberal Party was to put a moratorium on the closure of those post offices. This moratorium exists to this day.

We can and must do this again. The struggle continues…