The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) is fighting to save Canada Post jobs from being outsourced – and you can join that battle.

The Crown Corporation announced earlier this year that it would outsource its contact centres and the National Philatelic Centre, resulting in the elimination of more than 300 jobs across the country. The affected locations are in Edmonton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Antigonish and Fredericton.

Richard Deslauriers, the National President of PSAC component, the Union of Postal and Communications Employees (UPCE), said this move will bring Canada Post closer to a complete privatization.

“The privatization of Canada Post has always been an objective of the current management and the conservative federal government,” Deslauriers said. “The slippery slope of partial privatization of services will end up with Canada Post in the hands of private companies and Canadians will be deprived of a service they have relied on for decades.”

Robyn Benson, the PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President for the Prairies, said: “This obsession with privatization will badly damage the quality of the Canadian postal service as well as the communities it serves. Many regions in the country will lose local contact with Canada Post as well as jobs that are important for the local economy.”

For Benson, the privatization of Canada Post’s answering services also raises the question of protection of confidential information provided by Canadians.

“I’m not sure that Canadians are ready to see their postal service become an information collection agency for the American government,’ Benson said. “If an American company answers calls for Canada Post, then the U.S. Patriot Act gives the government access to all information the company collects. Is that what Canadians want?”

You can help save jobs from being outsourced and save communities from suffering a drop in service. Please print this petition and get as many friends and colleagues to sign it, then return to the PSAC Edmonton office. The more voices that Canada Post hears, the more likely that privatization can be halted.