CANADA POST STRIKE DILEMMA

[silverpinups]

I have a Canada Post Strike dilemma. I sold a item last Thursday, Nov.14/24. I messaged the buyer to hold off paying until I knew what kind of strike action CUPW was going to take on Friday morning. 

On Friday morning I messaged the buyer  to hold off on paying until I messaged him back. I let him know that it could be 7 to 10 days before any resolution was found. The buyer agreed and all was well until he paid on Sunday, Nov.17/24. Now I have to ship by Nov.22/24 (I have 5 days handling time).

I messaged him back on Sunday and asked why he paid when I asked him to hold off until he heard back from me. He said eBay keep sending him reminders to pay and he was getting nervous about it. 

My dilemma is what if the strike is still going still on Friday, Nov.22/24? I don't want to use a different shipping method as I have solely used Canada Post for 18 years. 

Can I just mark the item as shipped on Friday then mail it out at a future date? If I don't ship until Canada Post is up and running and I get a late shipping defect, will I be able to have it removed because of the strike? 

If the buyer just waited to pay when I messaged him all would be well. 

[fergua3]

As strike enters third week, Canada Post workers appeal to public for patience.

That ran out 14 days ago for me.  If Canada Post does privatize and they either work at the new Canada Post for 2/3 of what they are getting now, or minimum wage at some other unrelated job, maybe then they will appreciate how good they have (or had) it now.  

[silverpinups]

The Trudeau Government should have ended the strike when talks between Canada Post and CUPW broke down this week.

 https://globalnews.ca/news/10894379/canada-post-strike-canadian-chamber-of-commerce-calls-for-end/

[silverpinups]

Looks like the Canada Post strike finally got some attention on the eBay.com boards.....

 Canada's Postal Mail service is on Strike - The eBay Community

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

We might find by the end of the strike that our Global TRS badge is no longer valid.

What are the benefits of TRS again?

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@reallynicestamps 

Going...going....gone...For many Canadian sellers because of this situation. For sellers, especially Canadians any savings are helpful!! Worst part of it  all was that it NOTHING we did wrong!!!

@recped 

Unfortunately for some Canadian sellers UPS, Fedex etc are not feasible or convenient alternatives. The other criteria are the 100 transactions/1000.00 in sales. Right now I'm hanging on by a thread!!!

[flipistics]

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@silverpinups wrote:

The Trudeau Government should have ended the strike when talks between Canada Post and CUPW broke down this week.

 https://globalnews.ca/news/10894379/canada-post-strike-canadian-chamber-of-commerce-calls-for-end/

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It's possible they may not feel they can. The level of damage to the country may not meet whatever threshold they have for implementing the order without support from parliament (which they likely can't get right now).

[musicyouneed]

Well I put my ID's on vacation for 30 days.  I am not hopeful that this will end before Christmas.  I am so mad right now at the postal union.   I don't blame the government as the PO is losing money and the PO needs to change the way they do business and the union doesn't want that. 

I have been ordering a bunch of stuff from Amazon and it is like next day delivery and with a prime membership I don't pay for shipping.  You can't beat that. 

What I have decided to do with my time is to do an inventory check.  Might not seem like a big deal for most, but I have close to 3,000 listings so that should take me a while.  

[silverpinups]

I've now extended my time away to Dec.7/24. I'm taking it a week at a time. I'm also **bleep** at CUPW for going on strike. I don't see an end to this strike anytime soon.  

[marnotom!]

Geez, I remember Christmastime postal strikes and lockouts from when I was a kid in the 70s. These are nothing new. CUPW going on strike any other time of the year would have a similar effect as teachers going on strike during the summer: nobody would care.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cupw-postal-strikes

[regs43]

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@marnotom! wrote:

Geez, I remember Christmastime postal strikes and lockouts from when I was a kid in the 70s. These are nothing new. CUPW going on strike any other time of the year would have a similar effect as teachers going on strike during the summer: nobody would care.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cupw-postal-strikes

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Alot of people don't care now though, becasue they have Amazon and or only recieve "junk flyers" so are not affected by the strike as it doesnt inconvenience them in anyway. The ones hurting are Rural communities where no one else delivers or its stupid expensive for alternatives.I don't think CUPW is getting the kinda support they were hoping for from the public, I sure am not on their side on this one. I'm a bit more on the Canada Post side, they seem to want to try and find a way to fix the issues, with what seems to me like reasonable options from what I have heard/read.

Of course all of us selling on ebay are affected and it sucks, I'm still getting sales (1/10th normal volume for this time of year at best) and have the ability thankfully to use Chit Chats but is for sure an inconvenience.

[fergua3]

i still believe that most of the union workers don't really want to be on strike.   But unions are like dictatorships......a few decide for the many.  And nobody wants to speak out for fear of reprisal.  

So the union bosses run the show, still getting their union pay cheques by the way, telling the workers to hold the line, while the workers make nothing but a little bit of stirke pay, if they picket, and that pay probably all gets burned up on coffee and food trying to stay warm, and beers after picketing.  They probably pocket nothing.

And the slight concessions they will eventually get will not even come close to making up for the lost pay.  

Rent is due tomorrow and a whole new set of bills will be coming in for everyone.....it's going to be a lean Christmas for the postal workers too, not just all the hurting Canadian businesses.

A pointless self destructive exercise if there ever was one.

[msau4301]

"i still believe that most of the union workers don't really want to be on strike.   But unions are like dictatorships......a few decide for the many.  And nobody wants to speak out for fear of reprisal."

Yes I agree most of the union workers don't want to be on strike at all. I read article (Toronto Star) from a woman who both her and her husband were Canada Post workers so they were really struggling now (two times the lost wages) and they would love to be back at work. I've even read some workers were trying to find alternate ways for the thousands of kids who send a letter to Santa at North Pole to get their letters through. I've known a number of people over the years who worked for Canada Post and never heard one of them say any negatives, they love(d) their jobs. It's out of (most) of their hands. Just like when the teachers have striked here including just after the kids had gone back to school after Covid (I have many relatives, friends who are teachers) they didn't want to do it. 

On a side note I've heard people talk about ChitChats often as an alternate method to ship to the US and have never dealt with them before, but yesterday I received a package from a US seller (not eBay purchase, the other guys) and when I saw it was coming by mail I thought it would be lost in limbo for a while. Tracking showed it was coming from US linked to a Canada Post tracking number (left while strike was already on). When I checked tracking on Canada Post site it showed movement through the US then stopped of course when it hit Canada. But two days later it was on my porch showing delivery from ChitChats. I had not seen that before.

[marnotom!]

This is not top-down dictated job action. Remember that there was a vote with over 95% of those casting a ballot voting in favour of striking.

[reallynicestamps]

A few quotes from an article in the Globe and Mail (Nov 23)

"Purolator is a profitable entity of Canada Post. In 2023, it recorded a profit of $293million that offset Canada Post's losses."

"....excluding Purolator.....In 2023, the company generated $6.9 billion in revenue, thecost of labour and... benefits that year was $4.9billion..."
"...Canada Post has an employee base of almost 60,000 people , with roughly 20 percent of them hired as temporary workers without a pension or benefits."

[reallynicestamps]

And the union's side-- which it is unlikely you will read in Report on Business or the National Post.

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:7f9ba09a-85f6-4f63-b625-18a6d948f5f3?fbclid=IwY2xjawG4Rz...

Did you realize that it was management that walked away and stopped talking on November 26th?

And during the strike, the union executive are not getting paid either. The management team is, even if they had locked out the workers, the managers would be paid.

[sin-n-dex]

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@fergua3 wrote:

There needs to be repercussions this time.  Two Christmas strikes in a row is not acceptable.  Taking advantage of vulnerable Canadians  for leverage is not acceptable.

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I'm with you there.

At my job I monitor a mailbox that vendors send invoices to. I'm getting emails daily with lectures about how we need to fulfill our obligations with paying our vendors by  using courier to send 100s a cheques every day.

I really badly want to reply to these vendors that they can suffer like the rest of us. Instead of complaining to me and lecturing me on my obligation to pay invoices promptly, complain to the government that they need to step in and put an end to the strike. Canada Post is an essential service for most Canadians.

We do EFT for or clients who are entitled to benefits (we set that up to avoid cheques being lost in the mail and people waiting for money they need). I get 200 invoices a month from one vendor for $50 to $100 an invoice and they want our staff to set up courier for each cheque that's paid (and there's 40 people issuing cheques for their files, so there is no way to bulk that up and send one payment because we aren't set up that way).

I've got friends who depend on Christmas sales to float their business through the winter when people aren't buying, and they're not getting any sales because they can't reasonabily use couriers to ship their items to customers.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@poppyseeds123 wrote:

Just popping in to say thanks for making this thread. I took some advice myself from the replies to your question. I just sold a small item for about $10 + shipping and uyer had chosen Canada Post for delivery. 

Here is the message I sent to my buyer;

"Thank you for your purchase! I am writing you to let you know that our postal service Canada Post is currently on strike! Sorry for the delay in message, I was hoping they would be back to work now. They may be back to work later this week or next week. I am not able to ship your item at this time. I am not able to ship your item with another carrier, because the cost to ship this item with UPS or Fed-EX or Purolator is much higher than the Canada Post shipping method that you chose.Would you like me to hold your item until the strike is over? Expect longer than usual wait time once it is mailed.Would you like m to cancel the order and you can purchase it with a different shipping method?You may also cancel your order all together. I believe you should ask me to cancel it since I still have one more day to ship under contract."

My buyer replied immediatly to lt me know they would wait. 

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Congrats on having a reasonable buyer. My four buyers (whose items are in limbo since I already mailed them a few days before the strike started, and before they gave notice for three of them), have not complained about not getting their items, done INRs or anything else to make things more difficult for me as a seller. But I do feel bad they have to wait.

I have some sympathy for workers who aren't getting their needs met with their contract, but the strike was done at Christmas on purpose to upset everyone in Canada, and that's the part that makes me angry. If they did it some other time of the year (like January), then a lot fewer people would be affected by it since most of us get Christmas sales to make it until Christmas again next year (not quite for me since I don't sell many Christmas presents, but my friends run online stores where a lot of gifts are being purchased and this strike is hurting them big time).

I might have some more sympathy for postal workers if they striked in January... but doing it mid-November was deliberate and infuriating.

BTW, I'm not paying any bills that come by mail until the strike is over. They can pound sand. I got lots of emails from people telling me that I owe them money by the deadline even if they can't send me a bill. Pound sand, you'll get your money when the mail resumes just like everyone else.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@fergua3 wrote:

As strike enters third week, Canada Post workers appeal to public for patience.

That ran out 14 days ago for me.  If Canada Post does privatize and they either work at the new Canada Post for 2/3 of what they are getting now, or minimum wage at some other unrelated job, maybe then they will appreciate how good they have (or had) it now.  

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I have zero patience... they have wrecked my friend's business during the busiest month of the year (his sales are mostly mid-November to mid-December, and he ships almost everything through Canada Post to keep his shipping prices competitive with other sellers). He still has staff to pay, and if there isn't enough orders to work on because people aren't buying right now, then the staff get their hours cut. The Canada Post strike hurts lots of people in ways they aren't thinking about when making their demands.

I work in the private sector and we get 2-3% raise per year (if our performance is within tolerance). I think some of the demands being made are a little bit greedy.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@silverpinups wrote:

Looks like the Canada Post strike finally got some attention on the eBay.com boards.....

 Canada's Postal Mail service is on Strike - The eBay Community

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I started a thread over there (where I normally participate) as soon as the notice was given.

I came over here because of the strike since on the dot com board it's not big news.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@musicyouneed wrote:

Well I put my ID's on vacation for 30 days.  I am not hopeful that this will end before Christmas.  I am so mad right now at the postal union.   I don't blame the government as the PO is losing money and the PO needs to change the way they do business and the union doesn't want that. 

I have been ordering a bunch of stuff from Amazon and it is like next day delivery and with a prime membership I don't pay for shipping.  You can't beat that. 

What I have decided to do with my time is to do an inventory check.  Might not seem like a big deal for most, but I have close to 3,000 listings so that should take me a while.  

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I ordered my holiday gifts on Amazon last week also.

Now if I can only find a cost effective way of getting it to my loved ones before Christmas.

C.

[mrdutch1001]

fortunately all Christmas gift items I have ordered from Amazon will be hand delivered for Christmas, so no forward mailing required. Others though may get $ e-transfers ...No it's not same as an acutal gift but sometimes you gotta change things and do what you gotta do...