Sundre postmaster Karin Roberts says she and her staff are pleased to be back at work this week after being caught in the middle of the Canada Post labour disruption.
The Sundre post office started accepting mail again on Monday morning. Back to work legislation passed on Sunday, forcing CUPW postal workers back on the job after they were locked out.
The five CPAA members at the Sundre post office were not locked out, and neither were the three RSMC mail carrier members in Sundre.
Both the CPAA and RSMC members were required to come to work. RSMC members did deliver pension cheques.
Roberts says she's sure everyone will be happy to be back on the job.
“We had nothing to do,” said Roberts. “We kept busy by working on lists and cleaning. We are glad to be back in business. We were begging for mail last week.
“When they were doing the rotating strikes, only one day we didn't get mail, but with the lockout we didn't get any mail.”
She said a lot of people came in looking for mail in the days immediately after the lock out started, “but then people understood that there wasn't any mail and that was it.”
She said she doesn't know if the office will be overly busy this week.
“We're not sure,” she said. “The fact that we weren't able to accept mail right away, we don't know what was backlogged in the plant. We will find out.”
Ferrell Haug, a resident at the Foothills Lodge, said residents are pleased that mail service has resumed.
“Of course you miss your mail,” she said Monday.
Sundre senior Harold Richards says the fact that many seniors now use direct deposit for the pension cheques and get correspondence through email helped alleviate the impacts of the postal disruption.
