Postal negotiations may bring new services to local communities

By Brittany Woodcock

BELLEVILLE – After months of negotiations have so far failed to come up with a new contract, Canada’s postal workers could go on strike with only 72 hours’ notice.

But workers don’t want to see a strike, according to Peter McCarthy,  president of Belleville’s Local 502 of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.

“The fact of the matter is we don’t want to strike. What we want is negotiated agreements, collective agreements, with our employers so that we can work,” McCarthy told QNet News.

“We want to deliver the mail, but it’s hard when your demands aren’t being taken seriously.”

On the list of the union’s demands are new services that postal workers want to provide to rural communities, McCarthy said.

One of those is to offer banking services at post offices.

For many years Canadians were able to go to the post office for their banking needs, but in 1968 the federal government phased it out.

McCarthy said it makes sense to have postal banking in rural communities like Marmora, Deseronto, and Frankford, where banks have closed in recent years but there are still post offices.

Marmora resident Sue Gushue says postal banking would be great for people in her community who can’t drive or don’t have access to a vehicle. Since Marmora’s TD Canada Trust bank closed in 2014, the nearest banks are in Havelock and Madoc, both about a 15-minute drive away.

McCarthy said other services the union would like to bring in are the Rural Reassurance Program, where postal workers would watch out for senior citizens who sign up for the service, and a grocery-delivery service.