Printing your Postie!

If Andre Ouellette has his way, or to be precise his bureaucratic managers, have their way, suburban and rural mail carriers will soon be subject to a fingerprinting as part of their job. Canada Post is in negotiations with it's union over the controversial plan to have fingerprints on record of their employees. The plan gained new life, with the discovery of 31,000 pieces of mail at the home of an Athabasca, Alberta postal worker.

The Canada Post Corporation wants it's prospective employees to also pick up the tab on the fingerprinting procedure, as part of their application for employment. It's not the first time the issue has come up. Some fifteen years ago the Corporation and Union went to battle over the issue of fingerprinting prospective probationary employees, an issue that was eventually ruled a violation of the members right to privacy.

The union is once again taking the stand that it's against this thin wedge of invading it's members privacy.
And well they might have a point, considering the current scandal involving the advertising revenues from Canada Post and the troubled ad agencies in Quebec. With Canada Post executives scheduled to testify at the upcoming hearings, perhaps the first fingerprinting session should take place at the Post Office headquarters in Ottawa.