 Canada Post maintains the Christmas decorations were stamped out because of health and safety concerns. (QMI, file)
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TORONTO -- Wait a minute, Mr. Postman.
Canada Post letter carriers at a downtown station say they've been Scrooged out of their Christmas cheer.
Mail carriers inside the Charles St. station who decorated their behind-the-scenes sorting areas with Christmas lights were ordered to take the ho-ho-ho out of the workplace and deliver the decorations back to their homes.
Canada Post maintains the decorations were stamped out because of health and safety concerns, but the union isn't letting management grinches steal Christmas.
Sue Kolompar, first vice-president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local Toronto, called the Christmas kerfuffle "utter nonsense."
Should limits be placed on public displays of Christmas?
A number of employees have been asked to take lights off their sorting stations and in one case a Christmas tree that sang Jingle Bells was removed, Kolompar said.
"It's just petty harassment," she said. "Canada Post is famous for that. They take these little things and they nitpick rather than deal with serious issues."
The Bah, Humbug! seems out of character for a Crown corporation that has "Send Joy" as its seasonal slogan and actively encourages Canadian kids to write letters to Santa.
While employees have been stopped from decking the halls in their sorting areas, the post office in the bottom floor of 50 Charles St. E. had a few poinsettias around the office yesterday and a large display of Christmas cards for sale.
Carriers outside the station yesterday were too afraid of repercussions to give their names, but several said it was like getting a big lump of coal Christmas morning.
"It's just lights," said one letter carrier. "It's kind of sad that you can't really celebrate, that you can't put your lights up."
Another carrier said he has had his lights up every Christmas for years but now had to take them down.
A third employee said he was surprised to hear about the incidents.
"Christmas is a big time for Canada Post," he said. "You'd think the more Christmas, the merrier."
A Canada Post spokesman told the Sun the lights were removed because they fell on the health and safety naughty list.
"It's a potential safety hazard," Canada Post communications officer Jennifer Arnott said.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
"Our health and safety regulations do not permit items to be placed on top of letter carrier (sorting) cases or other tall furniture.
"We're really trying to emphasize health and safety and making sure our workplaces are as safe as they possibly can be."
She stressed the corporation isn't anti-Christmas.
"We're the company that has the program if you write to Santa, he'll write back," Arnott said.
Kolompar, who also serves as the health and safety officer for the local, said she hadn't been contacted by Canada Post about the concern and wondered why a supervisor inside the same building was stringing lights around her desk yesterday.
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LUMPS OF COAL
HOLIDAY MISCUES
Christmas, or at least its symbols, are no stranger to getting Scrooged over the holidays. Here's a list of some of the less than Merry Christmas moments:
- 2006: A Toronto judge ordered the removal of a Christmas tree from the lobby of the Ontario Court of Justice at 311 Jarvis St. The tree was removed because the judge felt it was inappropriate for a Christian symbol to greet people as they entered the courthouse. After a chorus of complaints, the tree was returned to the lobby.
- 2005: A spokesman for the governor general created a one-day firestorm by announcing that Michaelle Jean would light a "holiday tree" -- an error quickly corrected the following day.
- 2002: Toronto City Hall bureaucrats created an uproar when they tried to rename it a "holiday tree" -- a decision made public by the Sun's Mike Strobel and quickly reversed by then-mayor Mel Lastman.
