Council offers letter of support to postal workers
By Kyra Hoggan
At its regular metting Monday night, council unanimously agreed to send a letter of support to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers as the union opposes deep cuts to postal service, including the end of door-to-door delivery.
City councillor Deb McIntosh brought up a letter from the CUPW requesting the city’s support.
“We really need to keep those services as much as possible,” she said. “The first issue is job retention – we need these well-paying jobs in our community.
“But it goes beyond that – we’re already hearing about problems with existing community mailboxes here in Castlegar: people having to climb over snowbanks to get to them, for example. People in wheelchairs obviously can’t do that.
“Mail is a fundamental service, and the federal government should be focussing on how to make it more accessible, not less so.”
In its letter to mayor and council, CUPW pointed out that Canada Post has made money in every one of the past 18 years with only one exception (2011), and said the planned cuts, huge increases in postal rates and elimination of community post offices would be hugely detrimental to the corporation and to communities alike.
Castlegar currently has eight full time and two part time letter carriers, along with four full time counter positions, meaning a total of 12 jobs within the city are in jeopardy with the proposed cuts to service.
