Over 200 people gathered outside of Windsor’s mail-sorting plant on Walker Road Saturday to protest Canada Post’s proposed service reductions and closure of the historic Sandwich post office.
“We’re top in the country for the last six years at local mail – we’re at 96 per cent in getting it out the next day. Now they’re moving it out to London and assuming that they’re going to make the same commitment? There’s no way,” said Jeff Carroll, president of Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 630.
The sorting station in Windsor will now only manage parcels and direct marketing mail, as well as handle some processing of local mail, with other mail sent to London for sorting and delivery, according to Canada Post.
The changes will cost the Windsor plant 80 jobs through attrition and job transfers, said Carroll. There are around 140 employees at the Walker road plant.
“This is also a rally for Windsor. We believe the machinery leaving Windsor didn’t have to be done,” said Carroll. “We were supposed to get machinery here in Windsor in the beginning and then all of a sudden London was getting it, too, and now all of a sudden they’re taking all of our machinery.”
“They’re saying it’s all about the money. The only money savings I see that they’re doing is the jobs that they’re getting rid of eventually, and these are good paying jobs and they’re hard working people,” said Carroll. He said the rally is “more or less about all the good jobs leaving the city. That hurts our community and we’ve been kicked enough.
“We’ve got the highest unemployment and the federal government is allowing them to add more.”
Michelle Johnson, who has been a Canada Post employee in Windsor for the past 32 years, said the changes will affect local mail turnaround and how quickly residents receive their mail.
“Windsor is not a second-class city and it does not deserve second-class mail service,” said Johnson.
Coun. Ron Jones, who represents residents in the city’s west end, where the Sandwich post office is located, said he had a meeting with Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton and Mayor Francis on Thursday.
“We certainly indicated to Mr. Hamilton the need for these jobs and the need for the office in Sandwich Towne and to consider creative ways to maintaining these things,” said Jones following the rally Saturday. “I sent a letter off to him yesterday, via Canada post – the Sandwich office – and asked him to come back to Windsor for a consultation with the community.”
Coun. Alan Halberstadt spoke at the rally and told the crowd about a resolution that city council unanimously passed to lobby Ottawa to reverse the local Canada Post cutbacks. A letter was sent to Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, who is also the Minister responsible for Canada Post, “citing opposition to the decision and closure of this post office and further that this decision be reconsidered,” said Halberstadt.
“You just get tired of living in Windsor and whenever they consolidate stuff, it’s never here,” said Halberstadt.
A Transit Windsor bus was chartered for Saturday’s rally to transport west-end supporters of the protest to the Walker plant. Terry Kennedy, who has lived in Sandwich Towne for nearly 60 years, was one of the 30 who crossed the city to attend.
“The Sandwich Town post office itself is like a living monument to post office workers that have been here since the 1700s and the idea is we have this specific post office saved because it reminds people of what the royal mail service was all about,” said Kennedy, who held up a sign during the rally with the writing ‘Shame on Canada Post’ on one side and ‘Save Our Heritage’ on the other.
Canada Post deciding to close the historic post office is not only affecting the people and economics of the neighbourhood it sits in, said Kennedy, but it’s taking away from the community’s heritage, which is something the area has always relied on to capitalize tourism.
“It’s a jewel in the crown in terms of our heritage,” said Kennedy.
A number of greats have walked past the historic Sandwich post office, including Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Tubman, said Kennedy.
“John A. MacDonald threw up all over Sandwich Towne and now unfortunately those people in Ottawa think that they can throw up all over us again and we’re going to lose these jobs and lose this heritage,” said Kennedy. “It’s abominable”
Windsor West MP Brian Masse, who attended and spoke at Saturday’s rally, as well as the one held outside of the Sandwich post office two weeks ago, said Canada Post’s proposed changes are unacceptable.
“For a Crown corporation to be so heartless is unacceptable. We can sit down and try to work out a business model to make sure that they’re successful and Sandwich Town is successful,” said Masse. “There needs to be a halt of the business plan to prove that these things are necessary and need to be done.”
Masse said Canada Post’s claim that there won’t be jobs lost is misleading.
“Whenever you hear that type of language – that there’s no job loss but there are no longer those jobs – those are jobs lost. They’re no longer here,” said Masse. “Our young people won’t have those jobs. We won’t have those pensions. We will have less service and more inefficiency in the system.”
Masse said whether Canada Post likes it or not, as a Crown corporation, there’s an extra duty to be responsive to a community when it has changes of policy or provisions of service.
“There’s that extra responsibility that they haven’t done – that due diligence,” said Masse, who has a statement planned on the issue which he will be addressing in the House of Commons Monday. “It’s not a private firm by some outside company that’s from somewhere else. This belongs to the men and women of Canada.”
CAW Local 444 president Dino Chiodo speaks at a rally outside Windsor’s mail-sorting plant on Walker Road, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013. People were protesting Canada Post’s proposed service reductions and closure of the historic Sandwich post office. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)
Approximately 200 people attend a rally outside Windsor’s mail-sorting plant on Walker Road, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013. People were protesting Canada Post’s proposed service reductions and closure of the historic Sandwich post office. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)
Windsor-West MP, Brian Masse, right, speaks at a rally outside Windsor’s mail-sorting plant on Walker Road, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013. People were protesting Canada Post’s proposed service reductions and closure of the historic Sandwich post office. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)
Zeon Bouvier, centre, regional representative for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, speaks at a rally outside Windsor’s mail-sorting plant on Walker Road, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)
Zeon Bouvier, left, regional representative for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, speaks next to Windsor-West MP, Brian Masse, at a rally outside Windsor’s mail-sorting plant on Walker Road, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013. People were protesting Canada Post’s proposed service reductions and closure of the historic Sandwich post office. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)
A sign is pictured at a rally outside Windsor’s mail-sorting plant on Walker Road, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013. People were protesting Canada Post’s proposed service reductions and closure of the historic Sandwich post office. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)
