When staff struggle for established order, it’s by no means price it. Simply take a look at the Canada Put up strike

The Canada Put up strike shouldn’t be about cash and advantages. It’s actually a couple of service that ought to have dramatically advanced 30 years in the past with the introduction of straightforward e-mail and on-line purchasing.

Ask anybody whose paycheque is auto deposited of their account, they’d doubtless inform you the postal strike has not affected them a lot, if in any respect. They could be pleased with the dearth of the same old mail they get, most of which is tossed within the rubbish. Ask them in the event that they miss the day by day supply of the mail for the previous few weeks, they usually doubtless will say no, as a result of they test their mail as soon as, possibly twice, per week.

It’s as a result of the postal strike doesn’t have an effect on most individuals’s day by day lives. It may have gone on and the common particular person, once more, one who doesn’t get mailed a daily paycheque, might discover, however not be affected a lot.

Sure, charities and others whose enterprise is dependent upon mailed donations are hurting. Then once more, mailing cheques is now not the norm – charging a bank card is. Many individuals, myself included, wouldn’t have cheques any extra. The donation receipt is e-mailed as nicely.

And but the union is insisting we’d like day by day door-to-door supply, so all 25,000 letter carriers have a full-time position, doing the identical factor they’ve at all times carried out. What prospects need is day by day supply of parcels, issues they really ordered and need. The non-public sector has capitalized on this with opponents like Fedex, UPS and Amazon. Purolator is within the combine too, however as Canada Put up is its majority proprietor and Purolator is unionized as nicely (by Teamsters not CUPW), they’re supporting their Canada Put up colleagues by refusing to deal with their packages.

The emergence of e-mail, and the surge of on-line purchasing is an ideal instance of a conventional service that been modified, to the purpose the place extinction, not evolution, could be very attainable. It’s like how vehicles changed horses and buggies. Horses didn’t evolve – the automotive took over. As roads and parking heaps turned the norm, you noticed individuals shopping for vehicles, no more horses.

And but, the union desires to see extra of the identical, simply extra full-time workers (leading to extra individuals to pay union dues) to accommodate weekend supply fairly than rearrange and repurpose your complete work power. Sure, it’s the job of the union to advocate for the employees. The crown company posted a $315-million earlier than tax loss within the simply the third quarter of this 12 months. Income continues to say no, and but the established order enterprise mannequin nonetheless sticks – day by day supply of letter mail and the full-time employment of many to ship that letter mail.

E-mail has taken over letter mail, or a minimum of the day by day supply of it and it’s time the union and its members accepted this and centered on what issues probably the most – parcel supply and the flexibleness of delivering it, seven days per week, just like the buyer desires. Maybe Canada Put up may set a wanted instance – fight the gig financial system by providing the identical service, however simply with a daily paycheque, advantages and staff safety, one thing the gig financial system doesn’t supply.

Many, many companies have folded for not recognizing the necessity of the client, hoping that issues will return to the way in which it was. Consider Blockbuster, Kodak and Blackberry. Regardless that Canada Put up is a crown company, it’s not funded by taxpayer {dollars}. It’s purely from promoting services and products, and it appears the merchandise have shifted from letters to parcels and the service is shifting from five-day-a-week supply to seven days per week.

Know-how is at all times evolving, and typically considerably altering jobs and providers, and it’s as much as unions who signify their individuals, to acknowledge this and evolve with it. The market, not the union, dictates the necessity for a service. Letter mail continues to be wanted, however not in the way in which it has been carried out for greater than 100 years.

As we strategy the vacations and staff are ordered again to work underneath their present contracts after a four-week strike, they’re doubtless battling prices, as strike pay is a fraction of their paycheque.

The struggle for established order is rarely a good suggestion and tends to lead to everybody, particularly the employee, shedding.

Eileen Dooley is a expertise and management improvement specialist, and a management coach, based mostly in Calgary