The future is uncertain for almost 2,000 postal workers based at Canada Posts huge mail-sorting plant in downtown Vancouver. Just over a year after announcing more than half of them would move to a new plant in Richmond, Canada Post may be changing its mind.
The Crown corporations Vancouver plant has operated out of 349 W. Georgia St. since 1958. But a year after announcing theyd move the operations to a sprawling 700,000-square-foot facility to be built at the Vancouver International Airport, theyve also purchased a $12.7-million, city-block-size property at 333 Woodland Dr. near Hastings Street. And while the fate of the downtown locations workers remains unclear, a similar project recently completed in Winnipeg brought job losses and increased injuries for postal workers, according to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).
Canada Post spokesperson John Caines told the Courier that 660 of the downtown jobs would be shipped to the new YVR facility as soon as it is completed in 2014, a decrease from the 1,200 that were slated to move there as of last May.
In a subsequent phone call to clarify numbers, spokesperson Anick Losier wavered, saying she couldnt confirm any job details yet.
Robert Mulvin, president of CUPWs Vancouver local, speculates that those currently working stationary jobs at the plant will be shipped south to Sea Island, while letter carriers working Vancouver routes may start their days at a new depot to go in at the Woodland property.
Regardless of where the jobs go, CUPW expects there will be fewer of them within the next few years. After Canada Posts modernization initiative was implemented in Winnipeg, roughly 100 of the citys 550 stationary mail-sorting jobs were lost. The city has also lost 50 permanent positions for letter carriers.
CUPW says that a similar situation is likely to occur in Vancouver. It will result in fewer jobs, said Mulvin. Therell be fewer people in the building, and therell be fewer people delivering the mail. No layoffs occurred in Winnipeg, and the workforce reduction happened because workers retiring or leaving jobs voluntarily werent replaced; Canada Post insists this will also be the case for Vancouver.
The modernization plan, costing $2 billion across Canada, will see 40-year-old equipment replaced with newer, faster machinery. Rather than sorting their mail by hand, letter carriers will rely on a multi-line optical character reader to sort out mail for them, and carriers will spend more of their time on the road as a result. Canada Post says that moving some of the downtown Vancouver facilities into a large, single-storey facility will streamline operations. They also insist that moving processing next to the airport will ensure a competitive edge in reaching the Asia-Pacific market.
Job losses werent the only concern for workers in Winnipeg. Weve seen a massive increase in the injury rates, said Ben Zorn, president of the Winnipeg local for CUPW. Canada Posts Losier said the overall injury rate hasnt increased in recent years, but she was unable to offer detailed or location-specific information that could compare rates between the new and old systems.
Coun. Geoff Meggs hopes that Canada Post will keep as many of the jobs within Vancouver as possible. If theres a new arrangement that would see some of the jobs remain here, I would think thatd be a good thing, said Meggs. To the largest degree possible, I think jobs should be located close to where people live, and we should try to keep employment in Vancouver.
