Watching the recent postal dispute was interesting.
There are those who say postal service is obsolete, no one uses the mail. These people have computers. They must have them because if they didn’t they would be using the postal system. If they don’t have a computer I can only assume they use the money saved from subsidizing Steve Jobs retirement fund to write notes to friends and have private couriers deliver them. Or they send telegrams.
Which brings up the 2nd point most frequently raised: the postal system itself is too expensive and, because it is a crown corporation, inefficient. Ask the next Fed Ex, Purolator or UPS driver you meet what happens when the post office goes on strike. These folk cannot handle the volume increase because they are not set up to go door to door in every city, urban centre, whistle stop and rural route across the country every day. They do not have the facilities to handle everything from thank you cards to Christmas parcels going out around the world to gold shipments.
It’s an old joke but next time you hear about a postal rate increase, consider how much you would charge to take a letter from somebody in Vancouver and deliver it to their 
dear auntie who lives in Virgin’s Arm, Newfoundland. An auntie who, I’m pretty sure, doesn’t have email. Or a computer. Or maybe even indoor plumbing but she does have a mail box on the road outside her house or, more likely, at the post office in town.
And finally, those damn over paid posties are going to hold us all to ransom for another week of holidays? This ties everybody’s knickers in a knot because the rest of us don’t have 6 weeks paid holidays. And paid sick leave. And a pension.
Realistically, the problem isn’t that they have these things; it’s that I don’t. So how is that their fault?
Ever watch old fashioned camel bartering? The buyer walks around looking at different animals and different sellers. After he wanders around for awhile he spends a little more time with one animal. Then he starts talking to the seller. He may go and do the same with a couple of other sellers. When he goes back to the first one, the seller puts out his hand as if to shake. The buyer takes his hand and then the two men really begin to bargain. They stand there, in a loose handshake, for several minutes discussing the merits of the offer and the price and the animal. The hand contact provides each with
subtle feedback but, more importantly, it is a sign this is being done in good faith and with the honest intention of settling the price fairly.
In the case of negotiations between Canada Post and the Postal Workers, there was no bartering, there was no sitting down and talking in good faith. Essentially what happened was the seller put out his hand, the buyer slapped him, called over his friend who pushed the seller into the dirt, took all the camels and threw out a few pennies as they left.
The labour dispute was not a strike, it was a lock out. There was no disruption in service by the union. It was a decision by Canada Post to walk away from the table and lock the doors. They knew everyone would blame the union and the government would step in to clean up the mess. And it worked.