eBay

silverpinups · ‎11-18-2024

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.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎12-12-2024

@marnotom! wrote:
Fun fact I forgot to add: Pierre Trudeau was Prime Minister in 1975.

2011 Fun Fact. History repeating itself.

Jun 29, 2011 — The Conservatives have always had the power to end the lockout through the Ministers in charge of Canada Post. They chose not to.

https://www.visionofearth.org/news/fact-sheet-on-canada-post-lockout-conservatives-launch-blitzkrieg...

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/conservatives-maintain-silence-as-strife-continues-between-union-rai...

silverpinups · ‎12-12-2024

I'm not saying there isn't problems between Canada Post and CUPW but it shouldn't affect Canadians, small and medium businesses, and charities. The financial damage has reached over a billion dollars.

CUPW went strike on Nov.15/24 and the government appointed mediator ended negotiations a week and a half later. That's when back to work legislation should have been introduced, CUPW and it's members decided to strike at the most crucial time of year to cause maximum damage. I have no sympathy for them....

Millions of Canadians are being held hostage because of 55,000 postal workers.

tryubik-useonlyasdirected · ‎12-12-2024

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned and it is certainly a fact that doesn't get much press but the workers did offer to do rolling strikes as they knew that this time of year would be the most effective (it is a strike action there is a lot of precident for this) but also that they valued the public who they serve and understood that it is most effective when recognizing this. CUPW went on a full strike because the company threatened to lock them out and then started to lay them off... they were given no choice. I for one am extremely thankful for the existence of maternity leave.

john_koenig99 · ‎12-12-2024

@tryubik-useonlyasdirected wrote:
I'm not sure if it's been mentioned and it is certainly a fact that doesn't get much press but the workers did offer to do rolling strikes as they knew that this time of year would be the most effective (it is a strike action there is a lot of precident for this) but also that they valued the public who they serve and understood that it is most effective when recognizing this. CUPW went on a full strike because the company threatened to lock them out and then started to lay them off... they were given no choice. I for one am extremely thankful for the existence of maternity leave.

Well, those benefits (like maternity leave) are great and have been in place for decades now. But all is well as long as there is a way to pay for them. When a company like Canada Post is bleeding money the way it is, there's no way to sustain the benefits.

marnotom! · ‎12-12-2024

@silverpinups wrote:

I'm not saying there isn't problems between Canada Post and CUPW but it shouldn't affect Canadians, small and medium businesses, and charities.

No, it shouldn't, but unfortunately that's the nature of strikes where the workers are involved in services for the public. That's why many public services are deemed "essential" and why the workers can be legislated back to work at our governments' behest.

Keep in mind that even when contract negotiations aren't a thing, poor relations between an employers and employees can still affect the general public in the quality of the service given and received.

@silverpinups wrote:

CUPW went strike on Nov.15/24 and the government appointed mediator ended negotiations a week and a half later. That's when back to work legislation should have been introduced, CUPW and it's members decided to strike at the most crucial time of year to cause maximum damage.

Well, that's the point, isn't it? Taking strike action in the middle of summer would make about as much sense as the NHL Players' Union taking strike action in the summer. Strikes aren't designed to give workers unpaid holidays. They're designed to make it difficult for the employer to function normally.

@silverpinups wrote:

Millions of Canadians are being held hostage because of 55,000 postal workers.

Another way of looking at it is that millions of Canadians are being held hostage because the union was forced to take action against an employer who's been very difficult to negotiate with. You don't get a 95% strike mandate from workers who are happy with how their employer is treating them in the workplace or in negotiations and who are willing to sacrifice their regular pay and benefits to make a point.

silverpinups · ‎12-12-2024

Well, that's the point, isn't it? Taking strike action in the middle of summer would make about as much sense as the NHL Players' Union taking strike action in the summer. Strikes aren't designed to give workers unpaid holidays. They're designed to make it difficult for the employer to function normally.

Yes, I understand that but it's not only the Employer that's affected by the strike. Millions of Canadians, businesses and charities are affected. A billion dollars has been lost, 76 million everyday is lost by businesses because of the ongoing strike. So if the CUPW and it's members are looking for sympathy, I don't think Canadians are in their corner.

Also CP is bleeding money and CUPW's demands are unrealistic.

sin-n-dex · ‎12-12-2024

@silverpinups wrote:
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....

We were talking about the strike at work today. We have 300 letters per day to process, multiply it by 20 days on strike (where we were working) and that's 6000 letters sitting in a storage room waiting to be mailed. Lots of the stuff in these letters will be irrelevant by the time they arrive. We started couriering cheques. We paid benefits early in anticipation of a strike, but we didn't anticipate it would go on a month later so now we're paying courier fees (we use ICS and Loomis) to send benefits to clients.

I did some math... they want a 9% pay increase for the first year, I calculate they ate up that 9% in lost wages while being on strike for the last month. (And I'm sure many striking are looking forward to it ending. I'm not sure about you, but I don't know that I could pay my bills on meager savings for more than a month if I suddenly couldn't go to work and earn money).

C.

silverpinups · ‎12-12-2024

Tensions and anxiety are definately rising on all fronts.

I want to start selling again but I don't see an end to this strike. CP and CUPW negotiations are going nowhere. No government intervention forthcoming and it will be 4 weeks as of Friday. Christmas season is over.....

Will the strike be over this year? Plus we can look forward to the possiblity of a tariff war with the US later in Jan/25.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎12-12-2024

@silverpinups wrote:
Tensions and anxiety are definately rising on all fronts.

I want to start selling again but I don't see an end to this strike. CP and CUPW negotiations are going nowhere. No government intervention forthcoming and it will be 4 weeks as of Friday. Christmas season is over.....

Will the strike be over this year? Plus we can look forward to the possiblity of a tariff war with the US later in Jan/25.

@silverpinups

Will we qualify for any part of the gov's hold the tax 2 month party for our customers? It's not looking good and there has been nothing from eBay if it will even get applied to online sales.

ilikehockeyjerseys · ‎12-12-2024

The labour minister has a mechanism that can be used to end the strike outside of Parliament, but certain criteria needs to be met, and it needs approval of a judge.

Here is an article that references it: https://www.thestar.com/business/labour-minister-slams-canada-post-union-and-management-for-being-hi...

Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code gives the Minister of Labour the power to take action to maintain industrial peace and promote the settlement of industrial disputes.

The Minister can:
-Make inquiries about matters that may affect industrial relations
-Refer questions to the Board
-Direct the Board to take actions the Minister deems necessary

I don't know how likely the Canada Industrial Relations Board would be to approve a request to send both sides to arbitration. Like most of you, I am learning a lot of new things about this strike. I won't pretend that I knew what the Canada Industrial Relations Board was even two weeks ago! So I'm far from an expert.

That article quotes a Professor at McMaster, who says:

“The closer we get to the holiday season, the greater the likelihood they’ll intervene,” said Larry Savage, a labour studies professor at Brock University.

MacKinnon’s decision to invoke Section 107 to end a lockout of rail workers earlier this year means his pleas for a negotiated settlement of the Canada Post strike should be taken with a grain of salt, Savage said.

“I think the minister’s been laying the groundwork to use section 107, while the whole time, saying he isn’t,” said Savage. “Why would anyone believe him?”

fergua3 · ‎12-12-2024

i did a similar calculation a couple of weeks ago. Back then it was going to take the workers 80 weeks to recover the money they have lost striking. That was if they got the 22% pay increase over 4 years that they were asking for (which was 10% over 4 years more than what CP had offered).

Now they are asking for 19% instead of 22% and it's been 4 weeks not 2. So it will now take 211 weeks for them to recover the money they have lost striking, if they go back to work tomorrow. But of course they won't be going back to work tomorrow and they probably won't get 19% either.

So realistically they will never recover all the money they have lost from striking and the loss will get bigger with each passing day....

silverpinups · ‎12-12-2024

I have no idea, I guess it will be a wait and see situation. eBay should be responsible for implementing it.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎12-12-2024

@silverpinups

On the ummm brighter side I guess we can be grateful Canadian sellers are not responsible for implementation and then the de-implimentation 2 months later.

marnotom! · ‎12-12-2024

@silverpinups wrote:

. . . but it's not only the Employer that's affected by the strike. Millions of Canadians, businesses and charities are affected. A billion dollars has been lost, 76 million everyday is lost by businesses because of the ongoing strike.

Yes, you've made this point a couple of times already, so I'll make mine again, too. Unfortunately that's the nature of strikes where the workers are involved in services for the public. That's why many public services are deemed "essential" and why the workers can be legislated back to work at our governments' behest.

I'm not disagreeing that the strike is having an impact on the general public, but my view is a bit nuanced.

@silverpinups wrote:

So if the CUPW and it's members are looking for sympathy, I don't think Canadians are in their corner.

Here's the Angus Reid Institute's polling on the subject from a few weeks ago, for what it's worth.

@silverpinups wrote:

Also CP is bleeding money and CUPW's demands are unrealistic.

The way collective bargaining works discourages both parties from tabling their "best offer" right off the bat. It just seems to be taking forever for the "give" in the "give and take" to happen.

silverpinups · ‎12-13-2024

Yes, you've made this point a couple of times already...

Yes, I apologize... reponses become repetitive when reading and responding to similar posts or I'm just not paying attention to what I'm writting..... if that makes any sense.

silverpinups · ‎12-19-2024

Well, the saga ends... I contacted the buyer on Monday to let him know that the Canada Post strike was over and his package would be mailed out on Thursday or Friday. He was very happy to hear from me and actually purchased two more items yesterday.

His package was mailed out Thursday morning. There was nobody at the Post Office so I was in and out in 5 minutes. I guess the Christmas rush is long over. I reminded him to mark the Nov. 15/24 purchase as "arrived on time" if he leaves feedback.

It's nice to be selling again....

john_koenig99 · ‎12-19-2024

@silverpinups wrote:

His package was mailed out Thursday morning. There was nobody at the Post Office so I was in and out in 5 minutes. I guess the Christmas rush is long over. I reminded him to mark the Nov. 15/24 purchase as "arrived on time" if he leaves feedback.

I guess the big question is when the buyer will be receiving the package. I see that CP is in a rush to receive and send packages rightaway, but the backlog of already sent packages right before or during the strike is not moving an inch. The tracking of the 5 orders I have due from the US are frozen in ice. Haven't moved at all since the start of the week.

marnotom! · ‎12-19-2024

@john_koenig99 wrote

I see that CP is in a rush to receive and send packages rightaway, but the backlog of already sent packages right before or during the strike is not moving an inch. The tracking of the 5 orders I have due from the US are frozen in ice. Haven't moved at all since the start of the week.

Tracking shows you where an item has been, not where it is. It's not real-time.

Could there be the possibility that these packages in the US are on the move but there just aren't any scans on them yet?

john_koenig99 · ‎12-19-2024

@marnotom! wrote:

Could there be the possibility that these packages in the US are on the move but there just aren't any scans on them yet?

I guess that's possible. USPS has not even updated their alert page about the CP strike since 29 Nov.

Those packages are probably at the bottom of their priorities. I just hope I'll get mine, eventually. I deal with collectible items, so it would be sad to lose them.

silverpinups · ‎12-19-2024

I guess the big question is when the buyer will be receiving the package.

I sent the package Xpresspost-USA so we'll see how long it takes.... also remember it just has to cross the border. Packages coming into Canada or being delivered in Canada will take much longer than those packages going out of Canada.