For Immediate Release

Ottawa – “We want to be paid for the time we actually work and we want respect,” said Denis Lemelin, National President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) in announcing awareness-raising actions in communities where Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers (RSMCs) process and deliver mail.

On June 11^th, RSMCs frustrated with Canada Post’s delay tactics in negotiations and arbitrations will set up local information pickets and don armbands and buttons saying “RSMC – Second Class No More!”

According to the CUPW, RSMCs are paid according to an inaccurate, outdated and unfair theoretical evaluation of the time it should take rural posties to prepare and deliver mail to their communities.

“On paper it might say it takes four hours to deliver their route when really it takes eight, or maybe it says eight when really it takes twelve, so after a certain point, they’re working for free,” said Lemelin. “You’d feel pretty disrespected and undervalued too if you were an RSMC working out of the same post office as your urban counterpart who does similar work for the same employer while you receive inferior wages and fewer benefits.”

“That’s why RSMCs from Chilliwack, B.C., to St. John’s, Newfoundland, will be joining car convoys, setting up information pickets, designing placards and wearing armbands to push back and get Canada Post to stop treating them like second class citizens,” said Lemelin.

The RSMC awareness campaign is gaining momentum in many rural communities. Last week in Ontario there was a car convoy in Tri-Town and an information picket in Port Perry. Another car convoy starts this Friday at 2:30 p.m. from Highway 7 east to Highway 400 in North Brampton.

“Our national day of action for RSMCs on June 11^th is just the beginning,” said Lemelin.

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