@doctorkb: your post is pretty one-sided (and shortsighted), so only partially true.
Doesn't matter how (ergonomically) the bags are designed and the weight is distributed over and impacting the body, a continuous load of about 20 kg is a heck of a load! Yes, it has been part of their life for decades and it will stay like this for many decades to come. But someone needs to do it!
Yes, they chose this job. But we need people to keep choosing this job, if we want the trade to keep existing (if we want our mail to be delivered). Don't attack postal workers, and after there will be no postal workers left, then suddenly complain that your mail is not delivered!
The comparison with a bag handled by airline personnel is somewhat weird, since it's a different way of handling the load, moving your body while handling the load and the time it takes to handle the load compared to the total amount of time worked.
I don't know if they're overcompensated. 40-50k a year seems like a decent paycheck, nothing more and nothing less. Apart from that I don't make that amount of money at the moment, while I know that my job can be done by unschooled employees with a small amount of in-company training that's been done while working. But at the same time that position is still underpaid to make a decent living out of it. All I can make out of this is that you're jealous of the postal workers and confusing that with what is normal for western standards.
Partially also replying to Toby and the article he stated: I surely think people could use the snail mail less. Mailed cheques are something that are pretty old fashioned, but at the same time I see that my bank is also very behind on on-line paying compared to leading European countries (partly because of provincial security measures, I must add). This with all the respect to Canadian standards, I know that I've been very lucky back in the Netherlands with how far on-line banking has already evolved. Also regular communication I do a lot through email and Skype (and internet community forums). However, I don't think I can ever live without regular snail mail services. Let's think about how nice it is to receive old-fashioned Christmas and birthday cards. Even most of my communication with my girl friend went through Skype and email, I could help sending a rare romantic hand-written letter through snail mail. Also I still order cds and dvd (maybe soon also BluRays) through the internet that I have send at home through mail. If I look at how mail services have evolved, are evolving and could evolve, I can't help but hope that hoping that my daily delivery of mail at home doesn't disappear. Maybe the corner of the street would be an option for my mailbox (which I've seen is already common for more rural areas in Canada), but not further and especially not at the post office. I happens more then often that I work at irregular hours and that I come home hoping to find some mail I was waiting for outside of opening hours (that I'm already pretty lucky with). And with Canada Post I can say I've been already pretty lucky, even when the mailman for package mail has been lazy (or is already overworked on his route?), didn't want to climb one stairs to see if we're home and brought it to the post office, since my nearest post offices are just a few blocks away. If I miss a package from UPS, DHL or Puralator, I have to ask one of my friends to borrow their car, since it's at least 10km shortest or 13km fastest and I'm way too tired to bike this after work!! Not too mention that those company's pick-up centers only close at 18:30, are not open on Saturdays, and that for the second biggest city of Québec province (Québec City)!! Yes, in that case I can be very happy with Canada Post services, locations and operations so far (in the Netherlands I was even lucky enough to receive mail at home on Saturdays too and have the drop-off mailbox emptied on Sundays too).
When looking at what companies and government do in Canada, I can say that indeed more communications could go through email. What I can totally understand is that CIC prefers us sending full applications through mail services rather then through email. I know that I can make up my forms and attachments on my computer in decent looking PDF files. Okay, I admit I have some illegally acquired software for this. Even if I choose open source software, I could reach my goal (even some more frustrations and time, because of limitations and bugs later). I also know is that I am a bit more privileged with computer skills and know-how than the average applicant. Imagining myself in the role of a CIC agent, I would probably see a lot more applications lacking documents, because of applications not knowing how to decently send it through the internet. Already people choose too often to hire immigration lawyers for applications that they can do just fine on their own and get charged big amounts of money. Let's not make ourselves rely too much on other people to send an application Or even if we would, it means more people finding ways to abuse immigrants in fragile situations.
I'll end with this. I think I already spent too much energy and time explaining things that should be more obvious. I'll simply blame it on the mass-media again, brainwashing the people. Today I read Le Devoir and found some nice articles on what's going on with the mail, the opposition in the federal parliament defending the union and many other stuff going around. There's definitely ways to get informed of what's going on. Just don't always fall for the easiest option (especially if the easiest option would be the Sun News Network, but then I would go on rambling over their abusive interview recently and their propaganda on arts fundings. Interested? Start here:
On Sun TV and Margie Gillis).
Peace!
Jurjen
