A major Canadian corporation, Canada Post, whose business has an effect on just about all of us, is now staging rotating walkouts in various cities across the land. These situations always make me grit my teeth because we’re not sure which side is more justified in the contract impasse. All we know, as always, is what we hear, see and read in the media, and all we are told is what each side wants us to hear. The employer paints the employees as being greedy, grasping and unfair and the employees paint the employer as being stingy, harsh and unfair. Canada Post says it has put forward a significant offer that includes wage increases, job security and improved benefits. The union says there’s been little progress this year on resolving critical issues such as increasing precarious work with more temporary workers, an end to forced overtime, and including gender equality language in a new contract. I love this country and the right to peacefully oppose things we perceive as unfair. What I have never liked is how the general public, meaning us, gets caught in the middle and inconvenienced, sometimes to a great degree, when unions and management dig in their heels. As we know from experience, nothing lasts forever. Both sides will go back and forth war of words in the media until they eventually reach a compromise. I wish they’d just fast-forward to the end, do a deal and let’s get on with life.
That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.