Canada Post workers get layoff notices

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Workers at a Canada Post call centre in Antigonish knew it was coming, but they say getting layoff notices the day before the Easter weekend was just rotten.

"Rotten and mean, that’s what it was," said Mike Moeller, Atlantic representative for the Union of Postal Communication Employees.

"And, in the middle of an election, it makes you wonder if they’d consulted with the Conservatives before they made the decision," Moeller said during a telephone interview Thursday.

At total of 18 term employees at the National Philatelic Centre in Antigonish will lose their jobs effective Aug. 24. They answer queries from the public about postal deliveries, problems and concerns.

Canada Post has contracted out the government call centre jobs to a private corporation.

"These are public service jobs and they’re being given to a private company called Minacs, which is a large corporation and they have call centres in places like Bahrain. Who knows where the jobs will be going?" Moeller said.

The remaining 50 employees at the centre, which acts as the national clearing house for stamp collectors and postal customers, are to lose their jobs by 2012.

Patty Ducharme, national executive vice-president for the Public Service Alliance of Canada, was more than a little disgusted with the news that 202 Canada Post term employees across the country will lose their jobs over the next few months.

"We met with the employer (Wednesday) and tried to convince them to wait until after the long weekend before telling the employees, but they had to hop on a plane and travel down there and be the Easter Bunny," said Ducharme.

"One of the employees down in Antigonish has worked there for 15 bloody years but ‘Oh, let us screw you over for Easter,’ " she said.

"As far as (Central Nova Conservative candidate) Peter MacKay is concerned, he’s done SFA and has refused to meet with the members down there so they got no support from him," Ducharme added.

"The Conservatives are hell-bent on ripping apart the infrastructure our parents and grandparents paid for," she said.

"This should not be privatized, and if Canada Post believes they’ll do better with a contractor than seasoned staff, they’re just wrong."

MacKay was unavailable for comment.