Canada Post Ordered Back To Work Pending Approval From CIRB

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

https://x.com/stevenmackinnon/status/1867588692560531609

The Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon invoked his authorities under the Canadian Labour Code to request that the CIRB (Canadian Industrial Relations Board) order Canada Post back to work and extend the terms of their current collective bargaining agreement. 

This does not require a vote, instead the CIRB has to agree that an agreement between both parties under the current circumstances is unlikely. There was some speculation the last week or so that this might happen since it is an avenue to force Canada Post back without requiring a vote in Parliament. 

[mrdutch1001]

I doubt anyone needs to "jump for joy" ...just yet. Expect nothing to come of this before year's end...

a "proposal" is not necessarily going to result in anything positive and/or any immediate action...

and for many sellers here on eBay, too little, too late....

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

It would be a forced extension of the current CBA until May.

The Labour Minister is enacting section 107 of the labour code. That means an agreement isn't required to force them back to work. It also doesn't require a Parliamentary vote. It requires that the CIRB agree that both sides were at a stale mate and nothing was being gained by the strike. 

I doubt the Labour Minister would do this if he didn't already know that there was a reasonable chance that it would be approved. They will most likely be back to work ASAP. 

https://www.thestar.com/business/federal-government-orders-end-to-canada-post-strike-while-commissio...

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/economics/2024/12/13/feds-ask-labour-board-to-intervene-in-cana...

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6591611

https://www.cp24.com/news/canada/2024/12/13/feds-ask-labour-board-to-send-canada-post-employees-back...

Obviously, that doesn't help people who lost out on weeks of sales. The system will also be very congested with the backlog of packages. 

[fergua3]

i'm jumping for joy.  The CIRB will certainly approve it....just as it did the dock and rail strikes.   They will probably be back to work by mid week if not earlier.  Union bosses will kick up  a fuss and probably challenge in court but i bet 99% of the workers will be glad to be going back.

So despite the 'staying on the sidelines' comment the gov't FINALLY did the right thing.  Christmas season is tanked but maybe hopefully a good boxing day/early new year sales bump.

Even if a vote was necessary the Conservatives would obviously support it, given Pollievre's comment a couple of days ago.  The problem would have been a multi week NDP filibuster.  But it's moot with the CIRB involved....no vote needed in Parlaiment.  

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Like I said in another thread, I am not going to pretend I am an expert on government industrial regulations, but it seems like they wouldn't do this if it wasn't a layup. 

It sounds like the CBA will be extended and they will be back to work on Monday.

[femmefan1946]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mackinnon-labour-dispute-binding-arbitration-1.7409656

Usually more reliable than Xitter.

[byto253]

I guess the polls were starting to trend way to negative.  Late in the day for Christmas shipments.  

[john_koenig99]

About time. It's the aftermath I'm worring about. I have ten orders stuck. 5 from the US and 5 from overseas. I really hope that none will be lost and that I can get them, eventually. 

[ricarmic]

Yep I'm going to stay "time away'd" until likely the end of December.

I have a recollection that in one of the past "resolved" strikes the reliability of delivery was poor as stuff was misdirected, forgotten in the corner etc. Might just be poor recolletive skills.

Even in the best case there will be a big surge of stuff hitting their processes, and stuff will be slow, along with impatient buyers (which is always true this time of year in a "normal" year) too many headaches to jump in too soon. 

I'm very fortunate that I'm heading into "semi-retirement" so I don't depend on the $$$ as much as a lot of people do. (However December isn't really a top month for me anyway in my categories).

I certainly feel for folks who depend on the Christmas season income.

[mrdutch1001]

a "forced truce" solves nothing as it is very possible further mail disruptions could ensue midway 2025 if agreements are not fully realized with a peaceful resolve at that time....

so as I said previously don't be too eager to"jump for joy" just yet as that joy could be short lived...

[flipistics]

---

@mrdutch1001 wrote:

a "forced truce" solves nothing as it is very possible further mail disruptions could ensue midway 2025 if agreements are not fully realized with a peaceful resolve at that time....

so as I said previously don't be too eager to"jump for joy" just yet as that joy could be short lived...

---

I don't think it's meant to solve anything. It just means that all the critical stuff stuck in the mail (like business cheques, passports, etc) plus supplies for northern communities will get cleared through the system.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

I linked to Twitter because it had the exact full press release from the Labour Minister, which was the most direct source. 

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

It is not the status quo. It is an extension of the CBA to force them back to work and end the stalemate, but there are also numerous other measures being taken to try and reach a deal. Measures that weren't instituted until this point. Whether those measures will resolve anything, I don't know.

I linked to a few articles in this thread, but I would encourage everybody to read the original press release in the OP along with articles summarizing the events from a few different sources since they pretty clearly state what to expect. 

As far as the return to business, I just read an article that seemed to dictate that nothing sent now will arrive until Christmas, because simply resolving the backlog will take such a significant amount of time. With that said, it will at least be a positive that orders can be processed. Especially for sellers who are grandfathered in on the old system and don't have to wait for funds to clear. If this allows some people to resume operation and get at least a bit of cashflow going, that has to be looked at as a positive in a very negative situation. 

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

I am not going to bother switching to Canada Post until after Christmas. If a customer requests Canada Post and understands what they are getting into it, I don't mind printing a Canada Post label.

I have a large amount of lettermail items, but for the amount of volume and profit I do with them, I'm not in a rush to take them off of the vacation-mode by proxy that they are currently in with expensive UPS shipping. If I was only doing lettermail items and had to shut down for the last month, I WOULD be in a rush to change them back (with appropriate shipping windows to prevent INRs).

For anybody with parcel type items, I would stick with UPS/Fedex/whatever for the rest of the season, unless those services completely break down under the volume. Most people buying over the next week or so will likely choose sellers with the fastest possible shipping options. 

[fergua3]

no binding arbitration has been ordered, unlike in the rail and dock strikes.   Instead someone has been appointed to look into why the two sides remain so far apart and offer recommendations as to what can be done........should take until spring.

If binding arbitration had been ordered then there would be no strike in a few months.  But now there can be.  I doubt it though.  After losing about $5000 each from this strike, i doubt the majority of workers will be excited about starting all over again with another strike, with new wages losses the result.

Unions always make a fuss about binding aribtration but they always get better deals from it than they are able to negotiate on their own.

[chicweb]

eBay sent a notice, I suggest everyone to read it.

Even eBay will continue it's protection.

For my part I think it's good for the packages currently stucked in the system. They will be delivered finally. But, I won't be using them anytime soon. 

Until may, there will be a lot of disruptions. The Union won't be happy and will use other means which might affect greatly the shipping service quality.

In may, they might strike again and we will be back in the same situation. Very not stable to use.

But, I understand those who don't have any other alternative. Just expect problems using Canada Post.

[fergua3]

i doubt there will be a strike in May.   If a Christmas strike was to no avail then a strike in the summer, will have a much lesser impact on the public and CP's bottom line.  So more lost wages for the workers with a much lower chance of a successful outcome for the union.

Speaking of which,  it would be a wise move by the union bosses to send the workers back to work before they are forced.  ie on Sunday.    No use in keeping them out a few more days until ordered back.....just costing them more lost wages, pointlessly.

[flipistics]

---

@fergua3 wrote:

i doubt there will be a strike in May.   If a Christmas strike was to no avail then a strike in the summer, will have a much lesser impact on the public and CP's bottom line.  So more lost wages for the workers with a much lower chance of a successful outcome for the union.

Speaking of which,  it would be a wise move by the union bosses to send the workers back to work before they are forced.  ie on Sunday.    No use in keeping them out a few more days until ordered back.....just costing them more lost wages, pointlessly.

---

I feel like they will absolutely strike in May. The union bosses are looking at this as a fight for all unions, not just the postal workers. History has also suggested that they don't (really) seem to negotiate. To be fair, I'm not sure the corporation does either. We seem to have two sides who would rather permanently shut the company down than give in an inch. Even Canada's top negotiator said that the two sides were going backwards in their offers.

I think there's only 3 possible outcomes. One, the government rolls CP back into a fedreral department (probably the best outcome). Two, a contract is imposed, either by the government directly or through binding arbitration. This is unlikely to address the core issues adaquately for either side, and the next strike will be even worse again. Three, they strike until the government gives up and privatizes it (probably the worst outcome for everyone, including the public).

[fergua3]

yeah the union bosses are more idealistic and feel they have a 'cause' (they can also afford to be since they keep getting paid by the union during strikes.....so it's no skin off their noses to call for a strike).  But the workers will have to vote for a strike.  They are less idealistic and more concerned with their day to day income.    They saw little result from this strike, when Canadians were most vulvnerable, and lost a month's pay.  A summer strike, when fewer Canadians will be vulnerable and more will have bullet proofed themselves against the possibility of another strike is likely to be even less productive and just cost many more week's pay.  Time will tell.

[dobo5250]

there is hope but after talking to a high level (head  of safety and resources for all of canada) retired union leader be it a car industry union leader yesterday it said that the way it works it will be if they go back before xmas a major work to rule and will cause at least a three week delay for mail to clear form time the union is sent back and then when then accually agree to the the new terms another two weeks after that so if they where to do something monday which is unlikely it will be about jan 20th before we will see regular packages flow -- so by that time i think alot of smaller sellers like myself will be out of business with the cost of doing business just to great to over come maybe if your lucky and things pick up really fast it will take about three months to recover what costs where lost and expenses spent during this strike  the longer it goes on the more small business owners go belly up --the part time buy the used stuff at thrift shop  and sell for extremely high profits will come back but i am afraid the small seller new items kind of people who have expenses like a regular business  or people who live  in very rural areas making hand crafted items will not or at least a good portion of them will not if it goes any longer than settling before xmas -- such a state of affairs so depressing -- thanks to all involved