"Conservatives Riding Roughshod Over Municipal Rights": Union

OTTAWA, June 11, 2015 /CNW/ - The union representing postal workers is holding the Conservative federal government responsible for today's ruling on Hamilton's mailbox bylaw.

"Canada Post and the Conservatives should be held accountable for forcing these unnecessary cuts on municipalities without proper consultation," said Mike Palecek, National President for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).

The cutback plan has the Conservative stamp of approval but that could change in an election year with opposition parties promising to stop the cuts and NDP promising to restore door-to-door delivery.

There can be no doubt now that this will be an election issue and the real court date is October 19^th," said Palecek.

Since Canada Post's cuts were announced in 2013, almost 600 municipalities and municipal organizations, including the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Big City Mayors' Caucus, have raised concerns about the elimination of door-to-door delivery. Hamilton city staff estimated that mailbox conversion would cost the city at least $2 million in administrative cost alone.

Palecek points out that the $2 million figure is administrative and doesn't include the costs of ongoing maintenance, of liability issues arising from accidents, from falling property values, and from good jobs vanishing from the local economy.

 "The Conservative plan is to downgrade our public services and download the costs onto municipalities. They're riding roughshod over municipal rights and they need to be stopped."

SOURCE Canadian Union of Postal Workers

Related Links

http://www.cupw-sttp.org