Chapter 3
‘Police arrest 17 trying to retrieve 'secret plans' to privatize Canada Post’
Link:
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=4492ec28-c571-43ba-a7ec-0d12177aa5de
Summary
Outside the Riverside Drive building, Canada postal services corporate headquarters stood around 150 protestors and a police barricade. They watched as Canadian Union of Postal Workers president Deborah Bourque and former president Jean-Claude Parrot, as well as 15 others, get arrested for trespassing after crossing the police barricade into the building. The 17 people who entered the building were after one thing, “secret plans”. They believe that Canada post is hiding "secret plans" that has Canada Post’s future agenda, including job cuts and eventual privatization. After the union boss and his party were arrested, they were issued fines and released. The protesters and arrestees believed they were trying to prevent Canada Post from privatization, and the closure of postal plants and offices around the country. This idea came from a planned closing of a Quebec City mail-sorting plant, which cost 300 workers their jobs. They think that it is the first of many plants to be close, and believe that corporate executives are hiding the plans to avoid public criticisms. "They've been wanting to privatize Canada Post for years and I think their plan is ultimately to downsize for the sake of profit," added Brockville postal worker Shelley Hamilton. "The Quebec closure is the start. I came here to deliver a message that we are intent on finding what their plans are." Of course, Canada Post denies the accusations, saying “We don't have any secret plans. They are asking for documents that don't exist”.
Relationship to Ch. 3 – Government in the Market
Canada Post is a Canadian postal service that functions as a crown corporation. Before the 70s Canada Post had a natural monopoly in the mailing services in Canada. Mailing services were a necessity that had to be provided throughout the country. But, in the 70s they had new competitors such as UPS, and later FedEx, loosening their grip on their monopoly, putting them in a defect. Privatization of Canada Post should be taken rather seriously, since the majority of our population uses their mailing service. There would be governmental control, for example, they might be able to raise the prices of the service. A private company’s interest is to make profit, and they would try to cut corners to reduce expenses. They might try cutting expenses such as limiting their services to certain areas, making them unavailable to rural or lowly populated areas, or there will be massive layoffs. I think that in the future, Canada Post would possibly become privatized. With the increasing amount of competitors in this market, there wouldn’t be a need for the government to run it themselves. I also think that if they were to become a privately owned company, it would be greatly regulated and restricted by the government. There is also a potential security risk in making it private, since the government cannot regulate what goes in and out as closely.
‘Police arrest 17 trying to retrieve 'secret plans' to privatize Canada Post’
Link:
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=4492ec28-c571-43ba-a7ec-0d12177aa5de
Summary
Outside the Riverside Drive building, Canada postal services corporate headquarters stood around 150 protestors and a police barricade. They watched as Canadian Union of Postal Workers president Deborah Bourque and former president Jean-Claude Parrot, as well as 15 others, get arrested for trespassing after crossing the police barricade into the building. The 17 people who entered the building were after one thing, “secret plans”. They believe that Canada post is hiding "secret plans" that has Canada Post’s future agenda, including job cuts and eventual privatization. After the union boss and his party were arrested, they were issued fines and released. The protesters and arrestees believed they were trying to prevent Canada Post from privatization, and the closure of postal plants and offices around the country. This idea came from a planned closing of a Quebec City mail-sorting plant, which cost 300 workers their jobs. They think that it is the first of many plants to be close, and believe that corporate executives are hiding the plans to avoid public criticisms. "They've been wanting to privatize Canada Post for years and I think their plan is ultimately to downsize for the sake of profit," added Brockville postal worker Shelley Hamilton. "The Quebec closure is the start. I came here to deliver a message that we are intent on finding what their plans are." Of course, Canada Post denies the accusations, saying “We don't have any secret plans. They are asking for documents that don't exist”.
Relationship to Ch. 3 – Government in the Market
Canada Post is a Canadian postal service that functions as a crown corporation. Before the 70s Canada Post had a natural monopoly in the mailing services in Canada. Mailing services were a necessity that had to be provided throughout the country. But, in the 70s they had new competitors such as UPS, and later FedEx, loosening their grip on their monopoly, putting them in a defect. Privatization of Canada Post should be taken rather seriously, since the majority of our population uses their mailing service. There would be governmental control, for example, they might be able to raise the prices of the service. A private company’s interest is to make profit, and they would try to cut corners to reduce expenses. They might try cutting expenses such as limiting their services to certain areas, making them unavailable to rural or lowly populated areas, or there will be massive layoffs. I think that in the future, Canada Post would possibly become privatized. With the increasing amount of competitors in this market, there wouldn’t be a need for the government to run it themselves. I also think that if they were to become a privately owned company, it would be greatly regulated and restricted by the government. There is also a potential security risk in making it private, since the government cannot regulate what goes in and out as closely.
posted by Victor Duong at 1:05 AM
1 Comments:
It took me by surprise that members of the Canadian Postal Union would trespass in order to achieve what they want. First, it is illegal to do this and secondly, they don't even know if there is really a "secret plan". Even if there is such a plan, the union should wait until it is publicly declared. Then they can decide on a legal course of action. This would be a more proper way to deal with this matter. To the consumers, privatization is a good thing because the mailing cost would probably go down due to competition, and we might be getting better services too. I agree there should be some governmental control like making sure mailing services is available to rural and lowly populated areas as well.
T.King
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