Canada Post Possible Stike

[stanley613]

What happens now that orders are in the mail with a possible expected delivery date of September 30 and early October, what happens if not received there is no way of knowing whether these items will be received after strike is over.  Will eBay delay delivery date?

[momcqueen]

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@ypdc_dennis wrote:

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@momcqueen wrote:
I think the Free Press reporter failed to verify the authenticity of that notice they obtained.

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Or confused it with the Royal Mail.

"some international carriers, such as the Royal Mail, have now announced that they will be suspending the shipment of international mail destined for Canada until labour disruptions have been resolved."

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Announcements/Expect-delays-on-domestic-and-international-shipments/ba-...

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A reporter with 25+ years of experience is expected to know better. Journalism students are taught on day two to verify their sources of information. Plus, the Free Press article quotes directly from the (imaginary or fabricated) notice to outlets; there should be no room for confusion. And there's no room for error in a heated debate like this. This is firing offence territory. 

[momcqueen]

From Royal Mail: https://business.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5317/%7E/international-incident-bulletin

Update 15 November 2018
Incident: Industrial action
Start date: 22 October 2018
Implications: Significant delays
Expected end date: Unknown

Incident
As a result of ongoing industrial action, we have now been requested to suspend the dispatching of international traffic destined for Canada, from today until further notice. Items posted yesterday and entering the network today will be held safely in our international distribution centre, awaiting further updates from Canada Post. This applies not only to us, but all International Postal Operators. Canada Post are aware of the impact to all customers and are therefore continuing to attempt to reach a settlement with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). We recommend you consider delaying sending items bound for Canada in the coming days as we expect this to remain the situation until we receive further guidance. However, if you still wish to send items bound for Canada, we are still accepting them and will continue to hold them at our international distribution centre.

Once we know the outcome of the latest negotiations, we will then either suspend our services to Canada, not accepting your items, or we will start to ease our backlog by forwarding items to Canada for distribution. The volume of backlogs currently being seen in Canada mean that it will take some time to clear these items, as overtime hours are being limited by CUPW representatives.

Context
The CUPW initiated rotating strike actions in several Canadian provinces, which started on Monday 22 October at 12:01AM. Mail and parcels are not being delivered or picked up in specific communities for 24 hours while the union continues their strike activity – customers should expect to see delays for parcel and mail delivery while their local impacted offices are temporarily closed.

However, the strike action escalated soon after it began, with over 200 operational offices across the country and the 3 largest processing facilities (Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal) having been shut at some point in the four weeks of striking. The CUPW continues to add more communities each day, while Vancouver has been closed several times and Toronto is currently shut for the third time with no indication given of when it will re-open. Canada Post have informed us that a time-limited offer has been tabled to the CUPW, which expires at 23:59 on Saturday 17 November, with the urgency owing to 30-day backlogs in the national delivery network and the holiday peak season approaching.

We are keeping very close to the situation and will update this page as soon as anything changes.

[momcqueen]

Let's look more closely at this part of the statement: "This applies not only to us, but all International Postal Operators. Canada Post are aware of the impact to all customers and are therefore continuing to attempt to reach a settlement with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). We recommend you consider delaying sending items bound for Canada in the coming days as we expect this to remain the situation until we receive further guidance. However, if you still wish to send items bound for Canada, we are still accepting them and will continue to hold them at our international distribution centre."

If Canada Post had contacted post offices around the world to tell them, 'Stop sending us mail, hold our mail, we cannot get yours to you' does it not stand to reason that Canada Post would tell this to CANADIANS first? 

[momcqueen]

I'll tag you both again:

We really need ebay to step in and tell us what's really going on. Is incoming and outgoing mail from Canada actually shut down right now? If so, where is the notice from Canada Post? Why is it on the Royal Mail site and nowhere else? As ebay sellers and buyers, do you still expect us to carry on as if this is, in fact, business as usual? Many sellers here export and ebay already knows what percentage of sellers and buyers and transactions will be impacted by this. 

@happy_pigeon

tyler@ebay

[happy_pigeon]

Canada Post, to my knowledge, has not shut down any operations outside of the existent rotating strikes.

If they were to do so, it would not be an industry secret--the information would be available on canadapost.ca/update as well as across the newswire.

[pjcdn2005]

Sorry I haven't had a chance to read everything as I have to go out so I might have missed something but isn't that  announcement you just posted regarding inbound mail only?? That shouldn't affect us as our mail is outbound??

[hlmacdon]

Trying to find an official notice via the UPU, but the system they use for notices is members only. China Post has suspended all shipments to Canada as of today. Canada Post needs to issue a public statement at this point.

Edit: more info here

[momcqueen]

“A similar bulletin was issued by Hongkong Post and online marketing giant eBay said it also received a notification from China Post that it was halting deliveries.”

Eh? There’s another thread about a buyer who’s mad her favourite Chinese sellers now suddenly don’t ship to Canada.

If eBay knows about this, where’s the direction to buyers and sellers? And, more importantly, where’s the official notice from Canada Post?! We all have Solutions for Small Business accounts, they know who we are and how to find us.

[momcqueen]

There’s something rotten in Denmark. This stinks of hoax. It’s either a hoax or gross mismanagement of duties on the part of corporate entities. And, seriously, where are the newsroom fact-checkers?

[hlmacdon]

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@momcqueen wrote:
There’s something rotten in Denmark. This stinks of hoax. It’s either a hoax or gross mismanagement of duties on the part of corporate entities. And, seriously, where are the newsroom fact-checkers?

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If accurate (I haven't seen anything from USPS, but Royal Mail confirms and a supplier in China mailed me about the China Post situation) this is going to cause a cluster**bleep** on international mail. Royal Mail committed to holding parcels in their distribution center (for now), but China Post has not. Canada Post is also the sole processor of EMS shipments for the country, which is extremely problematic if they are requesting UPU members to not send mail. The UPU members would be within their rights to force Canada to take the mail.

The timing of this seems like a well coordinated PR stunt by Canada Post to ramp pressure on the union with a time limited offer on the table. Hey everyone with relatives living overseas, guess what? No Christmas presents for you!

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

All I've received recently from Canadapost regarding my Small Business account was a message(today) regarding the mailing of hazardous goods and Cannabis. Nothing strike  related what so ever. At the rate things are going all eBay sellers will soon require some sort of medication to be able to continue selling so they can "stay calm enough to carry on!!"

-CM

[momcqueen]

“‘The backlogs are also extending to international mail and parcels entering the country,” Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton said in an email.

“‘As a result, we have been forced to request that international posts, including the United States Postal Service, refrain from shipping items until we can clear the backlog.’”

Incoming mail is halted from Uk and USA? And CUPW says it’s unnecessary? This doesn’t add up. CUPW was congratulating itself on clogging the system with rotating strikes, now it’s saying it’s no big deal?

[hlmacdon]

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@momcqueen wrote:

Incoming mail is halted from Uk and USA? And CUPW says it’s unnecessary? This doesn’t add up. CUPW was congratulating itself on clogging the system with rotating strikes, now it’s saying it’s no big deal?

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As of now apparently the list is: US, UK, HK, CN.

Both parties look like absolute idiots in this process. 

[silverpinups]

I talked to my favorite Post Clerk today and Canada Post has not notified the Postal outlets of any refusal to accept outgoing international mail.

All my packages this week have reached their destination country except for one package that was mailed out yesterday by Xpresspost.

I believe that Tracked Packet and Xpresspost services have been given priority while regular mail is moving much slower or has been halted at Canada Posts major processing centers. 

The next few days of negotiations between Canada Post and CUPW will determine whether I stay open for business or set my store on vacation mode. 

[momcqueen]

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4909208

[momcqueen]

“The request covers all 190 countries in the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the United Nations agency that represents global postal services and oversees co-operation among them.

'Highly respected' mediator called in as postal workers keep Toronto plants shut
In an interview with CBC News, Hamilton said the backlog is a record for Canada Post with 600 trailers filling distribution centre yards, each containing an average of 2,500 parcels.

Normally about one million parcels arrive in Canada each day, and the next three weeks are the busiest of the year.

The halt doesn't affect mail leaving Canada, but like domestic mail, it will be subject to delays resulting from the rotating strikes, a spokesperson for Canada Post said in an email to CBC News.”

[momcqueen]

Yet I see nothing on the Canada Post website. Nor have I been informed of this by Canada Post as an account holder. Is it on their Twitter?

[hlmacdon]

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@momcqueen wrote:
Yet I see nothing on the Canada Post website. Nor have I been informed of this by Canada Post as an account holder. Is it on their Twitter?

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Nothing. Just press coordination via the media. Pretty clear this is a pressure tactic direct from CP and the government. Legislate them back to work already.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Apparently Japan Post is pausing shipments to Canada too. I got this e-mail from one of my favourite Japanese retailer this morning.

Dear Customer,

This mail is being sent to all of our customers shipping orders to Canada.

Japan Post has just reported that due to a strike currently happening in Canada, all shipments to Canada are temporarily paused.

Once the strikes are finished, then shipments will be resumed as normal.

Japan Post Link:
https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2018/1115_02_en.html

It's nice because I'm actually going away on a trip next week (no internet access), so I don't have to worry about finding Wifi spots to pay for my upcoming order until I'm back! I'm in no hurry for my items anyway. I had my October SAL order with them en-route to my parents' place because of the rotating strike, and my dad wasn't impressed about me sending him my loot lol. Tracking shows that it left Japan on Nov 5 and no updates since then. Normally it takes 2-4 weeks to get to me.

Now my other question is: I just got a $150 USD sale to the states. Should I ship it with Expedited Parcel USA tomorrow (which will sit in the postal outlet until Monday), or should I head to CCE next Tuesday to get it mailed? I'll have to set up a CCE acccount etc, but I have time to do it next Tuesday. For those who have a CCE account, is it a long process? Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks! 

[cumos55]

With each passing  minute. it appears that Sunday, November 18 is going to be ...

a RED HOT day.

CUPW does not want to end the strike..... but   The Government will step in... with the support of Canada Post and of eBay.

The fact that there is an international backlog of parcels coming into Canada, indicates that on-line purchases by Canadians  and the entry of parcels into Canada, is an important job for Canada Post.

CUPW seems to be living in the age of lettermail... and  appears to be ignorant of the fact  that parcels have become a critical reality  for Canada Post.    

If CUPW does not make an adjustment....  They will be forced to make an adjustment.