Since the start of the health crisis, postal workers have been subjected to a media lynching, accused of not sacrificing themselves enough for the “war” effort. In this letter to the press, a postman from Grenoble recounts, from his point of view, the real reasons for the postal failures of a ruined public service. This letter was originally published in the Grenoble newspaper The Postilion.
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I am a postman on a permanent contract, and I continue to work during confinement. On March 28, Dauphiné Libéré [un quotidien régional] published a large article, for once unsigned and edgy, entitled “When La Poste deprives you of your newspaper”. And all the newspapers passed the word shouting at a “rupture of public service prejudicial to information and the companies” and criticizing the choice of the management of the Post office to distribute the mail during the confinement more than three days per week , Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. To add to the drama, the newspapers were questioning retired pensioners who were no longer able to read their newspapers in the morning. Then television followed suit, even TF1 was outraged by the closings of many post offices and the poor retirees who can no longer withdraw their savings.
“While the nurses and the cashiers were heroines, we postal workers were bastards, deserters”
And then the media surge turned into a lynching in order against postal workers. While the nurses and the cashiers were heroines, we, the postal workers, we were bastards, deserters and in addition the slot of the mailboxes is too small to put the large envelopes. So it all made me angry.
First of all, anger because La Poste had done anything and cheerfully continued its business. In sorting centers, letter carriers, drivers, at counters, no sign of a mask, no gloves, very little gel, no windows between the public and the postmen. Unions have led the battle to impose very basic things, which La Poste deigns to order plexiglass and masks. My colleagues tinkered with hygienic tape with plastic sheeting and others managed to find masks and gel on the left to right while the national administration was at the absent subscribers.
“Mail centers were becoming centers of contagion of the virus, postal clusters”
Letter carriers crammed against lockers, one after the other fell ill and the mail centers became centers of contagion of the virus, postal clusters. In Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, Moirans, Saint-Marcellin, Grenoble, factors have seized the right of withdrawal to denounce the lack of prevention and protection measures. Alerts for “serious and imminent danger” have been filed by unions in many centers, such as in Moirans where six employees have been infected.
It took union and labor inspectorate action to close the center for disinfection. Then the complaint in summary proceedings of the South on March 25 which put a blow of calgon to the management of La Poste. Strangely they quickly found masks and gel in their stores, then plexiglass arrived on April 1, but in short supply – like a joke in bad taste. And still today, many postal workers work without masks.
“At the same time, a tornado of Amazon parcels swept through the postal network”
At the same time, a tornado of Amazon parcels was sweeping the postal network. Confined customers frantically let go of online shopping without thinking of the invisible workers behind the screen. Logistics hubs such as those of Fedex in Roissy and Amazon warehouses also appear to be centers of infection devoid of protective equipment.
- © Le Postillon
The urgency to stop the machine was obvious. We demanded a break, that we cut off contact with Amazon, that we redefine a public service vital to the needs of the population. To date, La Poste still does not want to hear anything: “The CEO of the Post refuses to police the package when some call to refuse items deemed non-essential. He prefers to appeal to the responsibility of customers and shippers ”, informs us The Dauphiné released April 2. In other words, take advantage of the context and the shutdown of the competitor Mondial Relay to boost volumes. On April 9, the CEO of La Poste even congratulated himself on Europe 1: “Never have there been so many parcel shipments! “
“It would have been wiser to distribute every other day by alternating two” sealed brigades “of postmen”
On the ground the situation remains chaotic. This virus has been a revealer of what normally happens in less spectacular ways. By dint of working on a just-in-time basis, in understaffing, by dint of exploiting subcontractors, scrolling through temporary workers and work-study students, La Poste has lost all resilience. Already in normal times there is no more replacement to open the offices in case of absence while half of the offices have closed in 15 years. Already in normal times “short tours” are commonplace, parcel deliveries are haphazard, and newspapers distributed at the end of the afternoon with the bursting of working hours imposed by the latest restructuring. And there, with parents forced to stay at home, work-study students ordered by the education ministry to return home and hundreds of sick people, everything collapsed, the ruin became visible.
It is in this context that fell this lunar decision, announced without consultation, to distribute the mail only three days in a row per week, whereas it would have been wiser to distribute every other day by alternating two “brigades sealed “factors as proposed by unions to limit health risk. No matter, the damage was done, it was us bastards.
“An egocentric and capricious press that talks about us without questioning us, without investigating”
So, I also have anger at this self-centered and capricious press which talks about us without questioning us, without investigating. And I doubt that it is the collapse of the public service that upsets the press owners, but rather the loss of subscribers and especially the fall in advertising revenues caused by the cessation of daily distribution. To better denounce the “rupture of public service” the media recalled the annual aid of the State of 100 million euros to La Poste in exchange for guaranteeing the distribution of newspapers six days a week.
What they forget to say is that the paper press receives hundreds of millions of euros in “portage aid” from the State and benefits from a very advantageous press postal rate, as a whole bunch of newspapers that have little to do with general information (leisure or insurance magazines). Is this subsidized tariff fair, knowing that it does not benefit smaller titles without advertising?
“Risking his health, that of the public, to distribute pubs or the new pair of sneakers ordered on the Internet”
By shouting at the “rupture of public service”, the media have completely missed out on the decisions and issues that have upset La Poste for years. La Poste is no more than a public service ghost, it has been a public limited company for ten years, a money machine. It has just lived through one of the last phases of privatization very discreetly on March 4, 2020. Through a tortuous financial package, La Banque Postale, a subsidiary of La Poste, took control of the private insurer CNP, listed on the stock market, thanks to the transfer of shares of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) which in exchange increased to 66% of the capital of the La Poste group. Clearly, CDC now controls La Poste, and although it emanates from the State, CDC operates like a vulgar pension fund, always seeking to extract maximum profits from its investments. La Poste announced an increase in profit with 822 million euros in 2019. Not bad, but the CDC aims to double by 2030.
We could have talked about all this in the columns of the newspapers, quite empty in recent weeks. It could have been an opportunity to start over and redefine what a modern postal public service could be. Because if postal workers exercise their right of withdrawal, it is also because they do not understand the interest of risking their health, that of the public, that of their families to distribute pubs or the new pair of sneakers ordered on Internet.
“So if instead of smashing the postal workers we asked questions publicly about the future of La Poste? “
So if instead of smashing the postal workers we asked questions publicly about the future of La Poste? What should La Poste do? Who should it belong to? Where should the profits go? Should a shipment by Amazon or by an individual cost the same price? What working conditions for postal workers? What meaning to give to our work?
A whole bunch of questions that I have little hope of addressing in your columns. Because following your pressure, La Poste and the press are reconciled. Not only because La Poste gave in, reversing its decision a week later by announcing that the newspapers would finally be distributed five days a week. But also because on April 3 it paid for a full page of advertising in almost all national and regional newspapers, then radio and television ads for an estimated budget of several million euros. The media couldn’t find anything to complain about, and hundreds of complimentary articles about our CEO flourished in the newspapers the following days.
A postman from Grenoble
This text was originally published on the site bimonthly from Grenoble Le Postillon. We reproduce it here with their permission. The paper version of Postillon n ° 55 will be available for sale in Grenoble from April 17.
Photo of a: © Pedro Brito Da Fonseca
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