Posties to make sure letters make it to Santa during strike action

Carriers for Canada Post are ensuring that letters to and from Santa make it where they’re supposed to go, despite workers taking strike action ahead of the holidays this year.

Jeff Burns, a New Westminster letter carrier for the postal service, tells 1130 NewsRadio there’s nothing more magical than getting a letter from Santa and seeing what he’s said.

“Every year, we deliver Santa’s letters back to the children. … Obviously we have our labour dispute, and we’re unfortunately on strike, but there’s no reason that the children should not be excited for those letters to come,” he explained.

Burns shares that the other night, he went home and created a “Letters for Santa” box for kids to get in touch with him, so he and his fellow colleagues can get letters where they need to go even while they’re not at work as usual.

“I went home, me and the kids designed this box — they were the supervisors and I was a worker, and it turned out pretty well,” he said.

Even though the box has been available for just days so far, Burns says lots of people have dropped off letters already.

“A couple of kids just came by with their toys and shyly threw their letters in,” he explained.

“I’m super passionate about this, and I think the rest of us are passionate about it. We want to make sure all children, and adults too if they want to send a letter, feel that magical stuff during the year, and so they don’t feel like they’re being affected by what’s going on with the labour dispute,” he added.

The strike by more than 55,000 Canada Post workers entered its fourth week on Thursday, with the Crown corporation saying it is reviewing new counter-proposals submitted by the union. With the strike suspending mail service, it also suspended the more than 40-year-old program that has delivered Santa’s replies to more than 45 million letters.

While Canada Post has removed the deadline for letters to Santa, explaining that when operations resume so too will the Santa Claus letter program, Posties in the province are taking it into their own hands.

Burns explains that the New West posties have volunteered to get Santa’s letters back to the kids once he replies.

“Obviously, they go to Santa first, and when he brings them back, we’re going to do our best to get them back [to the kids],” he explained.

“Since we don’t have our usual access to apartments or lockable gates or townhouse complexes, people can add their phone number onto these letters … so mom or dad can come back to pick up the letter when it comes back from Santa,” he added.

“That way everyone has the same opportunity, especially if you don’t live in a house where somebody could come up and drop it off in your mailbox,” he explained.

Burns says he and his colleagues would love to be working, and while they’re not, they want to keep helping Santa out and making kids and families happy during the holiday season.

“There’s nothing more exciting than seeing children happy, at least for me. Anytime someone comes up and brings a letter, we all stop. We get happy, we feel good. They look excited, and we need a lot of that nowadays, in our city and in the province,” he said.

While Burns and his colleagues are just helping Santa get his letters to kids in that city, Burns adds that there are other depots around the province who are doing the same thing.

“It’s all about the children. Let’s make the children happy and keep the magical season going. And I know the Posties want to be working, and we want to deliver these letters back from Santa. Hopefully, we see everybody back on our jobs sooner rather than later, as we want to enjoy the season as well. I think this is the beginning of the fourth week, so it’s been tough for us, but now this is a great thing we’re trying to do.”

Calls for government intervention have been mounting from the business community, but so far the government has said it’s not stepping in.

The New Westminster Santa letter box can be found at 24 Ovens Avenue, behind the Safeway at McBride and 8th Avenue.

–With files from The Canadian Press.