CPC Posts $319,000,000 Record Profit in 2009

Shortly after lamenting the financial dire straights of the Corporation, the nearly former President and CEO of Canada Post said to a group of CUPW members at Capilano Delivery Centre – “Don’t listen to rhetoric or spin” from CUPW. Rhetoric? Spin? Over the past few months corporate suits have been making the rounds of various stations and plants across Canada talking to our members about how “we” need to keep the company strong. They are saying things like “revenues were more than 500 million dollars below plan last year”. What they conveniently have not been saying is that the Corporation celebrated its 15th straight year of profitability last year. A record profit in fact, to the tune of 319 million dollars. CPC also managed to scrape together 379 million dollars to spend on new equipment and buildings in 2009, with another 528 million dollars planned for 2010. The Corporation is also talking about borrowing massive amounts of money, up to 2.5 billion dollars, in order to finance its ambitious modern post initiatives in hopes of achieving 250 million dollars in annual efficiencies.

The Union has made its position clear. We do not object to modernization. We do however have a fundamental difference of opinion on how it should be carried out – and to whose benefit. It is imperative that Canada Post remain a Public Post Office that serves the needs of Canadians no matter where they live. Modernization can not only help facilitate that goal but can also be a benefit to the workers who have to get the job done. It is our belief that new and improved equipment could be utilized to improve not only our “efficiencies” but more importantly our Health & Safety. Improved and expanded service to the public should also be a benefit of modernization. A purely corporate agenda that looks only to false profits and projections colours the issue in a way that is clearly outside the mandate granted to Canada Post by Parliament. When the Canadian people, through their parliament, established Canada Post as a crown corporation, a clear mandate was given – that CPC would be self-sustaining. Not a profit making machine, in fact not at all the company that the current management team has attempted to redefine it as.

Section 5 (2) (b) of the Canada Post Corporation Act:

(2) While maintaining basic customary postal service, the Corporation, in carrying out its objects, shall have regard to …
(b) the need to conduct its operations on a self-sustaining financial basis while providing a standard of service that will meet the needs of the people of Canada and that is similar with respect to communities of the same size;

The Corporate vision sees an entirely different customer than we do. Their customer is the large volume mailer, not the people we were designed to serve – the Canadian public. This is further evidenced by the vast cutbacks to accessibility to postal services, which if left unchecked will ultimately affect the viability of the Public Post. CPC has been removing hundreds of street letter boxes across the country. They have also been reducing hours at retail locations. Customers are reportedly being left on hold for 15-20 minutes when calling for pick ups, in some instances leading to service failures. Are these the actions of a management group that are concerned with service? Understaffing in virtually all Groups has become commonplace. Members are subjected to disciplinary interviews when they are injured on the job. Unrelenting pressure is brought to bear by CPC’s agent Manulife on many of our members if they suffer the misfortune of an illness or an accident. Are these the actions of managers who care about Health & Safety?

Why the doomsday talk from the corporate wags? Well, a cynic might suggest that they are spinning a yarn in advance of negotiations. Our contract expires in less than 8 months. Could it be that false cries of poverty are being made in order to make more palatable the rollbacks that they are demanding – like removing our hard earned sick leave and imposing in its stead a Short Term Disability (STD) plan that falls well short of what we have now?

The key element in the Corporation’s oft repeated statement: “revenues were more than 500 million dollars below plan last year” is the word “plan”. If one were to forecast winnings of a million bucks in the lottery and wind up getting a free ticket instead it could also be said they were just a little too optimistic, or “below plan”.

CPC talkers have referred to common goals they have with us – growing wages and protecting pensions. Their goals are so clearly different from ours that it is beyond disingenuous for them to suggest any commonality. These masters of rhetoric and spin are clearly trying to sell us a bill of goods. Of course we want better wages and pensions that are safe. We need to ask ourselves why they feel the need to state the obvious. What is missing from what they have said? Why didn’t they say last year was a record profit year?

We will face many challenges over the coming months. CPC will likely continue on its course of cutbacks and will also be ramping up its efforts to try and convince us that their vision is the only one that is viable. Ultimately it will be our choice through our democratic process to stand up and demand our rights as not only unionized postal workers but as Canadians.

In Solidarity,

Kim Evans
1st Vice-President

Sources: Canada Post 2009 Annual Report
Canada Post 2010 Frontline Visit Program – Briefing Document (February 19, 2010)
Note: Profit figure quoted is the 2009 pre-tax profit for the Canada Post segment only, i.e. excluding Purolator, etc.

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