Remember when the threat of a mail strike would send people into a tailspin, wondering how their life was going to function without the service, even if only temporarily?
Now when we hear of a mail strike, the conversation moves from one of disruption, to whether the service is still relevant to the majority of people.
Did you even know that 95 per cent of Canada Post workers across the country voted to go on strike, and that they could be by the end of the month?
You have to feel for the workers who fear coming out on the losing end of a negotiation because their business is becoming obsolete, but this is nothing new.
When Canada Post tries to modernize, for example with Super mailboxes, they are bombarded with advocates caught in the past who refuse to update a service that isn’t used as it was even a few years ago.
Yes, there is a place for a national postal system and many depend on it, but it is no longer the monopoly it once was as technology has provided other options.
WATCH: Canada Post hitting pause on plan to reform its business
A strike, I doubt it.
It doesn’t hold the weight it once did, and many who find alternatives stick with them when the strike is over, further eroding this archaic business model.
If the people insisting on keeping mail service the way it has been for decades would put as much effort into modernizing the system for its own survival, we’d all be better off.
Scott Thompson is the host of The Scott Thompson Show on Global News Radio 900 CHML.