Standing Up Against Misleading Claims
2023-2027/123
No. 23
We felt it necessary to respond to Mr. Ettinger’s misleading “Dear Colleague” letter released this week. Mr. Ettinger is either misinformed or doesn’t fully grasp the situation; this crisis can be attributed to decisions made by his management group to undermine our rights and seize greater control.
The financial situation we face is the result of Canada Post management. They have been spending as if they have unlimited funds, with non-labour spending skyrocketing. According to their financial reports, from 2017 to 2023, non-labour spending increased by over one billion dollars per year, a 56.5% jump. During the same period, our wages only grew by 14.1%. Moreover, since May 2023 and continuing to at least May 2025, Canada Post has been exempt from contributing to our pensions. Our wages and benefits are not the issue here—it’s the mismanagement and overspending by Canada Post. The real question is, what are they spending all that money on?
Canada Post’s 5-year plan initially allocated $4 billion to upgrade infrastructure in response to the surge in parcel growth during the pandemic. However, even after the parcel numbers stopped growing, they continued spending. Breaking it down, $4 billion over 5 years amounts to $800 million per year, which makes it no coincidence that they reported a $748 million loss for 2023.
If you plan a renovation on your home and then lose your income, would you still go through with it? Of course not. Yet, Canada Post continued to spend despite the stagnation, setting the stage for negotiations with CUPW. A financial loss supports their narrative. If they had paused spending on vehicles that are sitting idle in parking lots, postponed renovations, and delayed investments in IT, telematics, and cameras to watch you they wouldn’t be able to justify the rollbacks and changes they’re demanding due to the so-called “financial crisis.”
In 2022, Mr. Ettinger and his team informed Amazon that we lacked the capacity to handle their parcels, leading Amazon to take most of their business elsewhere. This decision alone accounts for the majority of the parcel volume loss. If they hadn’t driven Amazon away, there wouldn’t be a “crisis” to use as a weapon. Interestingly, Canada Post’s financial reports from 2018 and 2023 show the same total number of parcels (296 million). While parcel numbers were higher during the pandemic, it was unrealistic to expect that increase to continue post-pandemic. On the positive side, revenue for those same number of parcels grew by 39% since 2018, reaching $3.482 billion in 2023. We’re dealing with the same number of parcels with much higher revenue per parcel but have lost 30% of the market—creative accounting at its finest.
Canada Post is using “parcel market” numbers that include parcels that Amazon delivers themselves or through their subcontractor Intelcom. This is not the market; no other delivery company is beating us to those parcels. So why include Amazon parcels? Because it makes the situation appear worse than it really is! Everyone needs to be honest; this isn’t a game. In the video, Mr. Ettinger mentions they are selectively targeting certain parcels over others, highlighting the kind of irrational thinking coming from management.
Mr. Ettinger and his group need to take responsibility for several critical issues: the lack of proper sales staff, the drastic and disruptive changes to the delivery network, improper staffing, delays and non-delivery of mail, and their relentless pressure on front-line workers by hiring more supervisors, which has contributed to poor morale on the work floors. The costs associated with arbitration and STD appeals could also be avoided, but it’s clear their plan is more about controlling the workers and the union than saving money.
The fact that our competitors deliver directly to the door and not down the street like us and maintain direct customer contact might have the biggest impact on who customers choose for delivery. CUPW has suggested several initiatives to enhance Canada Post’s services, including expanding services to include postal banking and check-in services, developing an efficient e-commerce platform for small and medium-sized Canadian businesses and introducing new delivery services.
These measures could provide additional revenue streams, however, these proposals have yet to be adopted by Canada Post and they seem indifferent to anything outside of their plan. It’s difficult to believe that giving Canada Post management more flexibility will result in anything positive for workers; they use the flexibility they have to create more problems.
If they secure major concessions and the finances improve, they’ll say, “We told you so,” and give themselves bonuses. However, after spending billions over the past few years, the spending should decrease, improving the bottom line. This appears to be a manufactured crisis, with a preplanned solution designed to make their situation look better if everything goes according to their plan.
If you see Mr. Ettinger, be sure to tell him that you believe in improving customer service, not cutting services and front-line jobs and that you’ll stand up for what your household needs.
Shame on them.
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In Solidarity,
Jan Simpson
National President