CUPW letter to the editor regarding "This Cheque is Not in the Mail, April 29, 2014" (Ottawa Sun)

To the editors:

We're glad the Sun recognizes the importance of the postal banking symposium held April 26-27 in Ottawa (This Cheque is Not in the Mail, April 29, 2014 http://m.ottawasun.com/2014/04/28/this-cheques-not-in-the-mail). It's too bad the editors aren’t ready to take the idea itself seriously. British, French, Italian, American, Australian and New Zealand guests told us about how postal banking keeps public post offices viable.

So the Sun believes our population is well-served by the Big Five banks. That’s not what we hear from the rural, poor, or aboriginal communities that the banks turn their backs on. Payday-loans storefronts pop up and make loan-shark interest rates off of the customers that the banks just don’t want to serve.

Part of the job we do for members is to protect our jobs from bad management: Canada Post must release their internal study on postal banking to the public, and seriously consider this good innovative idea, instead of their current five-point plan: cut, cut, price hike, cut, cut.

Denis Lemelin
National President, CUPW