Some Manitobans will be missing out on their local community news due to a recent labour dispute at Canada Post.
As of Monday morning, workers have stopped delivering unaddressed mail — what the Crown corporation calls “neighbourhood mail.” That designation also includes flyers, coupons, and unaddressed publications like magazines and community newspapers.
Mark Buss, president of the Manitoba Community Newspaper Association (MCNA), as well as Clipper Press in Beausejour, says the action means around 3,000 readers in the rural municipalities of Brokenhead and Springfield won’t be receiving their regular copies of their local papers.
“It’s embarrassing, really… to consider us being advertising and whatnot,” Buss told 680 CJOB’s The Start.
“For what we do, keeping people informed as to what’s going on in their communities, it really was a slap in the face.”
Canada Post classifies unaddressed community papers in the same category as flyers, a designation the MCNA and some in the industry disagree with.
“Community newspapers are not flyers. We are publications and we’re vital to our economies,” said Lana Meier, publisher with Interlake Graphics. The company publishes six weekly papers in Manitoba and relies on Canada Post to distribute roughly 25 per cent of its circulation of 55,000.
Meier called upon her connections in the distribution areas to help, but says it will increase costs.
“We’re paying for this. To be one of Canada Post’s business partners for years and years and just to be left in the lurch like this… it really is embarrassing and disheartening.
Buss said the labour action will have no effect on paid subscriptions, or on readers where there are collection boxes or papers are delivered door-to-door.
The issue extends beyond Manitoba as well — in a letter provided to Global News that is addressed to both Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), News Media Canada CEO Paul Deegan said the move essentially treats journalism as ‘junk mail’.
“Community and ethnic newspapers keep Canadians informed, engaged, and connected in hundreds of communities across Canada,” Deegan said in the letter.
“Many are small businesses, owned by local entrepreneurs, who are struggling just to keep the lights on and make payroll in the face of the loss of advertising to American big tech companies.”
A spokesperson for Canada Post said the postal service is disappointed by the union’s decision, and that it remains committed to reaching a new collective agreement.
“We understand this change will have a significant impact on local community newspapers. We are disappointed in CUPW’s decision to ban the delivery of Neighbourhood Mail, which took effect Monday at 12:01 a.m.,” the statement said.
“Regrettably, the union’s decision will impact the thousands of Canadian businesses that use this service as well as CUPW-represented employees who are paid to deliver flyers on top of their wages.”
CUPW Regional Grievance Officer for the Atlantic Region Jim Gallant told Global News that Canada Post rejected the union’s ask for equipment like fatigue mats and carts to help with flyer delivery in the last round of negotiations, adding anyone who is unhappy with the decision to stop neighbourhood mail delivery should take their concerns to Canada Post.
“Canada Post has walked away from the table. They refused to bargain with the union,” he said.
–with files from Iris Dyck
