Postal strike won’t affect letters to Santa Claus in Fort Erie

An ongoing postal strike is affecting most Canadians, but not young children who have written letters to Santa Claus.

Some Canada Post offices in the region and beyond are going above and beyond to accept Christmas wish lists headed to the North Pole, including Fort Erie and Ridgeway.

Picketing postal workers have been collecting letters in front of the two local sites since the strike began.

“We’re not going to let the kids down,” said Joel Luska, president of Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 574, which covers Greater Fort Erie and Niagara Falls.

A team of volunteers will hand deliver mail back to kids who send a letter, a note that confirms their Christmas gift requests have been received by the big guy.

One piece of advice he offers is that parents and kids don’t drop their letters in red boxes usually meant for outgoing mail because mail carriers don’t have access to them at the moment.

“We can’t guarantee we’ll get to them if the strike prolongs,” said Luska.

The strike began on November 15 and wages are just one if the concerns, Luska told Fort Erie Radio in an interview on Friday.

He said bargaining during the pandemic took place and at that time, unionized workers agreed to a lesser wage under a premise that they would be compensated in future negotiations, which hasn’t happened, according to Luska.

“We need to catch up,” he said, adding that another issue on the minds of carriers are workload balance and the corporation saying less time needs to be spent on sorting at the start of a shift.

“We just want to get a negotiated contract on the table,” he said, which he says would be “in the best interest of the corporation itself.”

“We’ve now been on strike for two weeks against an employer that won’t compromise after more than a year of negotiations,” says a news release from CUPW.

“As a Crown corporation, Canada Post must lead by example and not engage in a race to the bottom with multinational corporate giants. Yet, it refuses to drop its rollback demands that will create a second class of workers and undermine good, full-time jobs,” the news release continues.

It is unknown when both sides will reach an agreement, but Luska said recent moves by Canada Post to lay off striking workers is not acceptable.

He also said no workers in Local 574 have been given layoff notices.

Aside from mailboxes offered by striking postal workers, local children can also drop off letters at mailboxes located at all three Fort Erie Public Library branches by December 16, an initiative organized by the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee.

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