The postal strike is over and I’m glad it is for rather selfish reasons: I like sending and receiving mail.
I don’t think the way the strike was settled is going to be good in the long run for Canadians, labour and unions. Although I have talked to a few people in the last few weeks who feel no sympathy towards unions, I’m always concerned when capital and political power can so completely trump the concerns of the workers. The Tories are clearly showing that they have little sympathy for the working class – and while the NDPs put up an impressive fight and staged a record-shattering filibuster, the majority government was able to force their agenda through without concessions.
Those concerned about this country’s democracy and labour relations have many reasons to be concerned.
However, all that said, I admit to being selfishly happy the strike is over.
On the first day that our mail delivery was back, I received my master’s degree in the mail. That was nice.
And more importantly, Miya’s sticker club can get going again.
Back before the strike, Miya was invited to join a sticker club which functions along the lines of a basic chain letter: Miya sends a packet of stickers to the child whose name is 1 of 2 on the list. She then moves child #2’s name to the #1 spot, adds her own name at #2 and sends this off to 6 friends. In theory she will receive 36 packets of stickers in the coming weeks.
When I was a kid I remember joining a few chain letters – and while we never got the promised number of letters or whatever else, we were very likely to get at least some responses and that tended to make it all worthwhile.
I’m not sure how many stickers M will actually receive in the end, but even if it is just a few, she’s already having fun with the project – decorating envelopes to mail out with stickers of her own and posting them in the mailbox. She even got to see the mail van come to collect the letters.
So welcome back to our mail carriers and postal workers.
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