CP Strike

[axe_n_gear_music]

My Canada Post guy today says that his contacts in Toronto are confirming a 99% chance of a strike on this Thursday. So many parcels shipped by CP over the last few days may be held in limbo for however long the strike lasts.

How many of you are putting your stores on vacation mode until we find out on Thursday?

AXE

[welcometodorysplace]

Hi Derek, I was also looking at your website...could you please send me more information about your services. I mostly deal with children's clothing and I did see somewhere that you don't except, clothes, food, and flammable or hazardous goods. I understand the food, flammable or hazardous goods BUT clothing?

Thanks a bunch.

[luxe.labels]

Has eBay announced any provisions for a postal strike in Canada.  It is going to affect all aspects of business.  I just had a number of auctions end today and asked all buyers to hold off on payment, but how long can an auction remain unpaid?  What if a strike lasts for weeks?  What are our options?  I am shipping by Fedex to one buyer, but most don't want to pay those rates.

There needs to be a consistent protocol for all sales that occur just before or during a strike.  That said, had I known the strike was so certain, I would never have listed items last week. 

[art-in-the-making]

You can't have a consistent protocol with sellers in so many different situations. Even site-wide announcements or such things would be crazy - as it would kill business altogether, even for the many sellers who don't use the post or can work around it.

One thing that would make sense would be to implement some possibility of dropping negs or low ratings received directly as a result of the postal situation.

[axe_n_gear_music]

Time to put our stores on vacation mode again? And for how long before we hear yay or nay to the strike?

If you are still shipping with CP, are you contacting each buyer to give them the option to cancel their order?

AXE

[pierrelebel]

"Time to put our stores on vacation mode again?"

My eBay store went back "on vacation" mode Monday morning within minutes of CUPW giving Canada Post the 72 hour strike notice.  All auction listings were cancelled at that time, including those with bids.

The store will re-open once an official announcement has been made that an agreement has been reached and the strike averted or once the strike is eventually settled through negotiation, arbitration or legislation.

[welcometodorysplace]

I put my store on vacation yesterday, I do have 2 items that have not been paid for by my customers I'm going to wait until Friday am to contact them. I did send an item out on Monday by Express (at my expense) just incase. Because of the possible strike I have been forced to look into other shipping options hopefully less expensive.

[westernstargifts]

I put my store on vacation late Monday afternoon & ended all auctions.  I contacted the buyers who had not yet paid and advised them to pay quickly because of the possible mail strike.  Most did.  One I still haven't heard from so I will be contacting him asking if he wants to wait & see what happens or cancel the order.

[coxengines]

Here, it is business as usual but there will be some tough decisions to be made if CP employees really go on strike.

We may continue "shipping" for a week and, if the strike is then still ongoing after that, look to alternate shipping solution.

CP will have a heck of a lot of non-delivery claims from us on their hands lol.

Bernie

[cumos55]

A Link to an interesting view on the strike.

http://postandparcel.info/39481/news/canadian-government-in-bid-to-avert-postal-strike/

The Canadian Government step in

[cdbasement]

I too wound my store down. It is pretty bad when CP has so much "power" over sellers. (especially when this is a "real job" that pays for my life)

I am pretty nervous about how long this will go on for.

There are limited options (read : none) for sellers who sell low priced/bargain goods as no buyer is willing to pay higher shipping within Canada.

For a long time I have wondered about either crossing the border, or finding a contractor who does cross border mail. The one that has been posting on some of the boards certainly appears legit, but for me he is a fair distance away (4 hour round trip) - so I have to do the math to see if that works. The border is an hour and a half away, but I have serious concerns about trying to cross the border with up to 400 envelopes a week headed to the US and abroad. The trade off though is the enormous savings, reliability and speed of using the US Postal System (Canada Post is reliable, but super slow, and super expensive - considering that they are essentially just a hand off service to USPS or whichever country)

So here I sit, with thousands of items "pending listing", and like many of you - no income. Frustrating!!!

Fingers crossed that this gets resolved!!

[labels.and.luxuries]

I put my store on vacation Monday evening, with no open auctions or sales. I shipped an item on Monday, which would have been in Halifax that evening. Hopefully, it will make its way across the border by Thursday. If not, I will refund.

[zarzuella]

cdbasement

For a long time I have wondered about either crossing the border, or finding a contractor who does cross border mail. The one that has been posting on some of the boards certainly appears legit, but for me he is a fair distance away (4 hour round trip) - so I have to do the math to see if that works.

I was using ChitchatsExpress cross-border service, and can speak very highly of it.

You're crazy to be shipping via CP.  A 4oz package shipped via USPS First Class Mail is only around $2 with delivery confirmation;  Add Chitchats cross-border service charge of .85 per package and you still have lots of wiggle room to pay a courier to ship your packages to them in the TO area without changing your pricing structure.  You should crunch some numbers.

For courier service I was using Flagship Courier Solutions (one of those companies (like eshipper) which buy courier contracts in bulk and pass on the savings to you when you sign up.  Worth a look.

Ann

[welcometodorysplace]

@Ann

Thanks so much for posting your opinion regarding ChitchatsExpress I was considering using this service but was a little hesitant.

[pierrelebel]

Latest post from CUPW website:

Meetings with CPC President Chopra and Labour Minister Raitt

Today we had meetings with CPC President Chopra and Labour Minister Raitt. In the first meeting with CPC President Deepak Chopra and CPC Chief Negotiator Mark MacDonell, both parties reviewed their positions.

CPC President Chopra discussed the financial situation of the Corporation much in line with a media statement CPC released immediately prior to the meeting.  

We informed Mr. Chopra that the union remained strongly opposed to the short-term disability plan and to lower wages and benefits for new hires as proposed by management.

We told CPC President Deepak Chopra that we had several very important demands concerning staffing and the work process of both internal and external workers.  

Meeting With Raitt We then met with Labour Minister Lisa Raitt.

At this meeting we were joined by mediator Jacques Lessard and another government official.

CPC President Deepak Chopra and CPC Chief Negotiator Mark MacDonell also both attended.

At this meeting Ms. Raitt encouraged both parties to resume negotiations. We reminded Ms Raitt that it is the responsibility of the Minister of Labour to honour and promote the legal rights of workers and unions, including the right to negotiate and to strike over unresolved issues if necessary.

Ms. Raitt acknowledged the union’s rights and requested that the parties meet with her again in the near future to update her as to the progress of negotiations.  

No Meetings Yet As of 5:00 p.m. EDT, there are no meetings scheduled between the parties.

To date CPC has not responded to any of the new positions advanced by the union in our final offer except to say no.

[femmefan1946]

Somewhat off-topic but DH will want to know-- do either jchitchat or bookstotheborder have prepaid labels that can be affixed to the parcels and envelopes they handle?

Something like those pretty stickers Canada Post sells? I think they call them "stamps"? 🙂

During many postal disputes, especially before the real establishment of couriers in Canada, there were Strike Labels produced by various small companies running domestic and export shipping services.

The labels are quite collectible.

[axe_n_gear_music]

Bernie wrote:

"We may continue "shipping" for a week and, if the strike is then still ongoing after that, look to alternate shipping solution.

CP will have a heck of a lot of non-delivery claims from us on their hands lol."

I just got back from my post office here, and asked about non-delivery claims, or refunds for items that take longer to arrive than the delivery standard guidelines show for each level of service. My CP rep called head office and was told "under no circumstances will any claims be honored for non-delivery or late arriving packages sent by any level of CP service prior to or during the CP Strike. Sellers were given three days notice of potential strike activity and are acting on their own risk if still utilizing CP during this time."

So as most have done, I closed my .ca ebay store and will hope for the best that this gets resolved soon. Those sellers that remain open might be playing a lose-lose game of Russian Roulette.

Cheers,

AXE

[westernstargifts]

And of course we all know that all the mail is always delivered within 3 days.

:^O

[cumos55]

Three days notice is not enough... however, it is Canada Post's view that three days is enough notice....

and 

We can most likely extend that three-day rule to what eBay would say... Three days warning is enough...  and it is the seller's responsibility to make the appropriate adjustments.

[cumos55]

I do remember that parcel that got hung up between Winnipeg and Toronto for 10 days... a trackable parcel

[jt-libra]

Just received this from the CUPW Newsletter:

June 2, 2011 The strike will begin at 11:59 p.m. EDT in Winnipeg (10:59 p.m. CDT). The Winnipeg local will be on strike for 24 hours, after which the strike will continue in other locations to be announced later. The purpose of this strike activity is to encourage Canada Post Corporation to abandon their proposals for significant concessions and instead negotiate solutions to the very real problems that are being experienced by 48,000 postal workers. Winnipeg has been chosen as the location for the first strike activity because it was the first city to be impacted by Canada Post's modernization program. The results have been a sharp deterioration of service to the public as well as a host of health and safety problems experienced by postal workers due to the new work methods and equipment.  CUPW has negotiations demands designed to resolve these problems and we want Canada Post to address them