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. 

[mrdutch1001]

It is my understanding the NDP also will not support the Liberals on settling the Postal issue. So when you have both Conservatives and NDP totally against such a move, this strike will continue. It seems the anti-Trudeau movement want to blame the Liberals for everything that goes wrong in this country. Folks need to put the blame where it belongs...This strike started with CUPW's ridiculous demands and will end when the CUPW realizes they can't have everything they want...

[john_koenig99]

"Liberal hater"...Right. 

Trudeau and the Liberals didn't created this mess, but they sure as h3ck aren't doing anything to resolve it. 

[fergua3]

@recped boy that's pretty funny.  I've been a Liberal supporter most of my life.    Be careful about making assumptions.

But in this case i have hit the wall with them.  They should have stepped in as soon as negotiations broke down and their own appointed mediator said the two sides were too far apart to continue.   It's Christmas time,  a VITAL time for tens of thousands of businesses.    That plus the 185,000 passports and the thousands of small communities that are virtually cut off is more than enough reason to intervene.  

The Liberals have intervened to end every other postal strike that has ever happened.  But this time, they are sitting on their hands, probably so as not to anger the NDP.    Whatever the reason, like with so many other issues these days,  the Liberals seem out of touch.

So, if the Liberals don't have my back, why should i have theirs?

And yes they can end the strike, the same way they ended the dock strike.  They Labour Minister can order that the parties go to binding arbitration.   The dock workers' union didn't like it when it happened to them  and in fact have taken the gov't to court over it, but in the meantime they had to comply.

I am no fan of Pollievre , believe me, nor any party right now for that matter.  The political system in Canada is the actual one thing that is 'broken'.

[mrdutch1001]

"And yes they can end the strike, the same way they ended the dock strike"...are you 100% certain of that?

Canada Post is NOT deemed an essential service and therefore the Canada Post strike cannot be ended in the same way.

[marnotom!]

A McGill University professor specializing in labour issues argues that Canada Post forced CUPW into striking, believing that as with the port and rail strikes, back to work legislation and binding arbitration would be almost immediately forthcoming if a strike were to occur:

https://montrealgazette.com/business/canada-post-talks-corrupted-by-recent-back-to-work-orders-mcgil...

[mrdutch1001]

At this point in time I don't think it matters who instigated the strike...it is here; it happened and it is what it is...

when all is said and done it will be a piece of Canada's Postal history that will be well remembered for years to come...

The dilemma at hand  as set out in the opening post of this thread will continue unresolved because there is no direct answer forthcoming that will resolve it and will continue to be such...it's a wait and see because of the circumstances that transpired in a particular situation. We can provide options, but under the circumstamces in which OP finds self by not just proceeding with shipping via an alternate shipping company, there is nothing that anyone in the community can state for certain as we do not know what eBay will or won't do under these circumstances.

[fergua3]

Canada Post IS classified as an essential service....for sure.   The gov't could act as a result, they have just chosen not to.

[silverpinups]

Canada Post IS classified as an essential service....for sure.   The gov't could act as a result, they have just chosen not to.

The federal government is focused on this GST holiday... Trudeau's attempt at bribing Canadians seems more important then focusing on getting Canada's postal service up and running. The financial damage to Canadians by this strike will be unforgivable.  

[sin-n-dex]

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@silverpinups wrote:

Canada Post IS classified as an essential service....for sure.   The gov't could act as a result, they have just chosen not to.

The federal government is focused on this GST holiday... Trudeau's attempt at bribing Canadians seems more important then focusing on getting Canada's postal service up and running. The financial damage to Canadians by this strike will be unforgivable.  

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I tell my friends I'll take the bribe, but I'm not giving him my vote.

The bribe is for $250... I lost at least $1000 in sales (in Canada) as a result of the strike. I believe my lowest amount of Canadian sales in 2024 was around $850-900, and that was April which is not a busy month for me anyway. I had almost $3000 in Canada sales in October, AND I shut my store down on the 19th. I'm still able to ship internationally with Stallion Express, but it's costing me a lot for the packages to Australia and New Zealand that used to go with Canada Post for 6.88. (I don't want to lose customers, I'm afraid if I block their country they won't come back because they'll think I don't ship there anymore).

The Liberal government can't pay me enough to make this right.

C.

[silverpinups]

The Liberal government can't pay me enough to make this right.

I am disgusted that the Trudeau goverment won't step in and end this strike. Canadians, charities and businesses  are hurting at the busiest time of year. 76 million dollars is lost every day the strike goes on and government just turns a blind eye to it. Trudeau is more concerned about Trump's so-called tariffs and he doesn't even take office until Jan.20/25.  

The government needs to focus on the here and now. I will not forget this when I cast my vote  next fall. 

[sin-n-dex]

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@silverpinups wrote:

The Liberal government can't pay me enough to make this right.

I am disgusted that the Trudeau goverment won't step in and end this strike. Canadians, charities and businesses  are hurting at the busiest time of year. 76 million dollars is lost every day the strike goes on and government just turns a blind eye to it. Trudeau is more concerned about Trump's so-called tariffs and he doesn't even take office until Jan.20/25.  

The government needs to focus on the here and now. I will not forget this when I cast my vote  next fall. 

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I'm upset that they are holding small businesses hostage... we're now on the 11th of Dec, which basically means we've lost our opportunity to sell things for Christmas (if we ship with Canada Post).

I'm OK because I have a job, but friends and friends of friends who are running small businesses and depending on things like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas to carry them into the next calendar year are really hurting. One of my friends might be laying people off since he can't make enough sales this month to keep him in the black through winter.

I was watching the National a few days ago and there were small business owners saying their parcels are stuck somewhere and they can't get them back, and now customers are asking for their money back because it won't arrive in time for Christmas.

C.

[silverpinups]

This postal strike is an absolute disaster for Canadians and the Trudeau government does nothing. Trump sends out a tweet about tariffs and Trudeau is on the next plane down to Mara-Largo for a meeting while millions of Canadians are left to suffer....

[fergua3]

Labour minister says Ottawa will remain on sidelines as postal strike nears four weeks

No help forthcoming either.  I have a feeling things will resolve in the next few days, somehow.  The pressure is building daily and something has to give soon.   Postal workers are almost out a month's pay, rural communities are desperate, small businesses are in a state of panic, hunderds of thousands of people are without vital documents that are stuck in the mail and even many gov't cheques are not being delivered.

All the political parties claim to care so much about the Canadian people, yet none have said a peep about ending the mail strike.    Next electon i won't be voting at all.....there is no one worth voting for.

[silverpinups]

 I have a feeling things will resolve in the next few days, somehow.  The pressure is building daily and something has to give soon.

Poilievre wants to see an end to the Canada Post strike and Trudeau said that any government intervention is off the table.

[fergua3]

interesting......i didn't hear that.  At least the Conservatives are acting as themselves then.

[marnotom!]

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@silverpinups wrote:

Poilievre wants to see an end to the Canada Post strike and Trudeau said that any government intervention is off the table.

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Well, I think that unless they're CEOs of or in the back pockets of the private sector package delivery services, most Canadians would like to see an end to the strike.  What would the Conservatives do if they were in power?  Poilievre is as usual big on the angry little man shtick but light on any sort of substance that would indicate that he's truly a prime minister in waiting.

[silverpinups]

See Poilievre cut loose on Trudeau:

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6589840

[silverpinups]

Well at least one of the party leaders is saying something.... Canadians are **bleep** off and frustrated with the Trudeau goverment's lack of action. 

[marnotom!]

Whatever course the government decides on is going to have consequences.  The consequences for the previous tactics of legislation and binding arbitration have been issues and concerns for both parties that have ended up being backburnered and left to fester.  The current government might be taking a long-term view that legislation is going to do more harm to Canada Post, CUPW, and the public than a properly negotiated settlement would.

An example of a festering issue on the union's side would be the difference in wages and benefits that rural carriers receive versus urban carriers.  I believe this has been on the table for the previous two sets of contract negotiations and it's been never dealt with.  As about 70% of rural carriers are women vs a majority of urban carriers being men, this has become a human rights issue as well as a straight-up pay equity issue.

An example of a festering issue on the employer's side is Canada Post's desires to make new hires subject to a different pay and benefit structure than established employees.  Again, this gets away from the doctrine of equal pay for equal work.

Content employees don't unionize and if they do they don't vote overwhelmingly in favour of strike action if everything is ticky-boo in the workplace.  There are a lot of issues on the table here that we probably can't wrap our heads around completely because we're not on the inside looking out.  A lot of people say that Canada Post is at a crossroads, but I suspect a lot of this is due to a lot of the elements of the employee-employer relationship going unaddressed for a long time thanks to quick-fix legislation and binding arbitration.

I'm barely old enough to barely remember that our mail service was down between October 21, 1975 and December 2 of that year due to legal strike action.  We still have a ways to go to reach that 43-day record again.

[marnotom!]

Fun fact I forgot to add: Pierre Trudeau was Prime Minister in 1975.