The 4 full-time staff in our local office have received literally hundreds of emails, phone calls and texts from our members during all waking hours over the past few days. Every concern brought forward we've tried our best to find a timely answer, offer support or pressure CPC to make adequate changes. We acknowledge any frustration you're feeling, and we are trying our best, with every tool at our disposal, to do what we can from our office. For those that have been patient with us, we profusely thank you as we do our best to navigate these unfamiliar waters.

Our office has also been having non-stop calls with upper CPC management about what they are doing to make sure the safety of our members is being prioritized as much as possible. Today, we had another call with upper-CPC and asked that the following changes be implemented as quickly as possible:

1. 1.  Social Distancing:  Keeping 6 feet between other people, no matter their level of health, is one of the most important mitigation tools at our disposal. It isn't the 'answer' but it is an important piece in the prevention puzzle. We want CPC to be giving regular, non-aggressive, reminders to employees throughout their shifts about the importance of not crowding together under any circumstances. Activist and union workfloor meetings will be more prevalent in the coming weeks to help pressure CPC to step up their safety protocol -- if these meetings are to happen, they should be held outside with adequate social distancing.

      1. EMPP: We have repeatedly asked CPC to stagger the coffee and lunch breaks of all shifts, as well as remove chairs and tables in the lunchroom to create adequate distancing for employees to take their breaks. Reports say this has started, and will continue to be applied more consistently. We have also asked that they stagger start times for all shifts where possible and where it would meaningfully thin out the amount of workers in the EMPP at once.
         
         Minimizing Indoor Crowds: We asked that CPC immediately stop any shift/break swipe-in/out procedure, and that, instead, every employee would go directly to their post and have their section supervisor do attendance with a clipboard.

      2. Depots: We have proposed a 4 wave model where each wave is separated by 1.5 hours. If adopted the start times should be determined by staggered mail cases, meaning that you would not have a neighbour working immediately beside or behind you. For example, there would be starts at the following times for designated employees: 6:30am, 8:00am, 9:30am, 11:00am. Some depots are reportedly adopting this now, but we want CPC to implement this as soon as Monday in all facilities. They said they’re  "working on it" (more on this below).
         
         Minimizing Indoor Crowds:  There should be no more line-ups for keys. Management should be delivering the keys individually or specifically asking 2-3 workers at a time to come get their keys. No more than 1 person should be at a PDT terminal at a time.
         
         

   2. Safety Supplies: CPC claims that they are frantically trying to find suppliers for face masks, hand sanitizer and latex/nitrile gloves. While we have no way of knowing how hard they are trying, it should be said that shortages for all of these products have been widely reported. In the meantime, we demanded the following:

      1. Inexpensive Cleaning Kits: Each EMPP cafeteria table and high contact surface area, each depot mail case and workstation (registration, supervisor desk, etc), and each retail counter be given a cleaning kit containing a spray bottle with 9/1 ratio water/bleach solution (sufficient to kill virus particles) and disposable rags. All of these products are widely available and inexpensive. We want these showing up at our facilities by no later than Monday or Tuesday.
         
         

CPC is saying they will take all of our concerns seriously and CPCs CEO is ensuring us that all proper protocol is being followed. Locally, we are seeing that CPC is taking too long to implement proper procedures. They still have the opportunity to do the right thing but it may come down to our workfloors pressuring them to hurry up. Edmonton workfloor activists are already circulating a petition to make sure CPC gets its house in order so that we are not a danger to each other or, more importantly, the public. I am sharing the petition below as an example of how many of our members are concerned and want action; if you support the sentiments of the petition, it is your choice whether you sign it or distribute it. I made it very clear to local management that now is the time to implement bold safety measures because it will be too late if this continues to escalate but my voice is rain drop compared to the ocean that is the collective voice of our workfloors.

CPC CEO address (Mar 19, 2020)

Workfloor Petition (link here) 

This message is longer than most because we are trying to be as transparent with our members and share as much info as possible. If you haven't already, the CUPW national site is an excellent source for C19 updates. Please sign-up here.

For the most comprehensive, up-to-the-minute info hubs on any postal worker C19 related questions (i.e. childcare, leave, travelling concerns, etc) please check out both of these links on daily basis as they are regularly updated:

CUPW C19 Info for Members (link here) 

CPC Info for Employees (link here)

For any question not able to be answered by your shop steward or these links, please contact the local office. We thank you in advance for your patience as we do our best to respond to the huge amount of inquiries coming our way. Please talk openly about the contents of this email and share it widely with any postal workers not yet on the listserv. Starting next week, we will be doing another push to get the 400 or so stragglers out of our 2300 total to sign-up to make sure everyone is getting this timely, vital information.

Stay calm, stay informed, and take care.