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?

[ricarmic]

There are so many mixed messages now in the news it is getting hard to know what is what.

600 trailer backlog and a month delay is what I'm hearing in some places.

In actual fact, I mailed 7 bankers boxes on Tuesday November 13th from here (close to London ON) to a wee place in Quebec.

Normal delivery is about 3 business days.

The 7 bankers boxes arrived today, which puts them a day or two behind normal delivery time frame. I am 100% not complaining about that, but this is at odds with what's being said in the news? 

[reveur*]

The news may be exaggerating a bit BUT I got direct info from CP supervisor who called Toronto. Toronto is at 400 trailers now.

My parcels sent expedited to the states on Nov 9, Nov 13 have not arrived and have NO scans except for "acceptance at post office" with a in transit bar moving. Nothing else. So yes, parcels are being held and stuck. 

[reveur*]

month long backlog can also refer to regular services and untracked parcels. i am under the assumption that tracked, expedited and express have priority? 

[marnotom!]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

• Overtime pay for working more than 40 hours.  (Although I thought that was the national standard? )
  

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Some employers opt for TOIL (Time Off In Lieu of overtime) instead. 

Strikes me (no pun intended) that Canada Post is extremely reliant on overscheduling its existing workforce--particularly this time of year--rather than hiring additional permanent ones.

I don't know about anybody else, but I'm considering the refusal of incoming international mail to be a "lockout lite" by management to counter the union's "strike lite". 

[reveur*]

I think you're right, but WHYYYYY does the public have to suffer through this BS? You'd think CP is also using tactics to make people point the blame at the union, I mean looks like the workers themselves are fed up with the union. This Mike guy is on some power trip.

[ricarmic]

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@reveur* wrote:

month long backlog can also refer to regular services and untracked parcels. i am under the assumption that tracked, expedited and express have priority? 

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Yes I saw that mentioned somewhere too.

Since over 80% of my sendings are not tracked, I can only look at the feedback I've received. I've received several feedbacks from the Nov 3rd timeframe. The most recent was mailed to Great Britain on November 9th.

[marnotom!]

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@reveur* wrote:

I think you're right, but WHYYYYY does the public have to suffer through this BS? You'd think CP is also using tactics to make people point the blame at the union, I mean looks like the workers themselves are fed up with the union. This Mike guy is on some power trip.

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Well, both management and workers are vying for the hearts and minds of the general public, but aren't doing a terribly effective job of it.  The fact that they're not "bargaining in the media" is probably part of this. 

I do find the comments about the union brass being "on a power trip" and Cumo's comments about "the tail wagging the dog" to be interesting.  If the tail is removed from the dog, does the dog continue to live, or does the dog perish?

[ricarmic]

Well I'm shaking my head at some of the comments, I see today a CUPW comment that the post office is making women work for free (" It asks women to continue to do work for free.")

I expect this is an extrapolation of the "problem" that they're "only" hiring women in the rural positions.

If memory serves from a couple years ago the actual stats on that were that 57% were female workers and 43% were male. To my mind this isn't really much evidence of favored hiring and it is probably well within statistical norms.

So if that recollection is right it really is 57% of women are working for free and 43% of men are working for free.....

Stuff like this makes it very hard for me to believe anything being put forward as facts.... the facts seem to change each round of the negotiations.....or perhaps it is just my medium old brain remembering things differently each time 

[cumos55]

There is a breed of dog that can be born with or without a tail.  To make the breed uniform, those with a tail have the tail removed surgically.

A tail can always be removed surgically ....  and so can CUPW be  removed, but very carefully, and maybe not directly.... that is to do something where the union has less "NO" power.

It may take some thought and appropriate legislation that would stop the union from continuing as a painful experience.

[momcqueen]

"I do find the comments about the union brass being "on a power trip" and Cumo's comments about "the tail wagging the dog" to be interesting.  If the tail is removed from the dog, does the dog continue to live, or does the dog perish?"

Is that a serious question? 

Ricarmic echoes my thoughts exactly on the 'women working for free' comment. It's as if CUPW brass are living in an alternative universe where the reality is theirs and theirs alone. I do dearly wish this whole situation didn't actually affect me, so I could merely shake my head in astonishment. But, as I keep harping, time is up: I'm a toy-seller and this is Christmas. I cannot wait around any longer while they keep (redacted) around. 

[cumos55]

"Working free" probably means they are being paid on a contract basis....  

Paid so much per km travelled and then so much per item delivered....

Not paid on an hourly basis like urban workers.

This method of payment means that some rural workers can make more that urban workers.. Such a rural worker might have a long distance, and high density rural district....  There is such an area immediately east of Winnipeg, where each residence must be built on 5 acres of land, as legislated by law for the sale of rural property

[forester_studios]

It seems to me the CUPW brass are in a bubble where reality does not enter. This tends to happen when people have it very good for a long time. Wasn't this Mike guy in charge the last time they were on strike? It's never good when one person has too much power for too long. Just look at history both ancient and recent. The old expression comes to mind "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts, absolutely".

[reveur*]

Well it doesn't matter anyway, this just makes the UNION look bad, not so much Canada Post. I'd like to know whey the vote wasnt given to members to get that $1000 and get back to work, I am willing to bet they would vote FOR it and this would be all over. But no. Mike has too much confidence in the liberal government, knowing they need union support so he is just making power plays without care for anyone else. I'd like to know the financial stats of the last month in how much money has been lost (or spent) because of the striking. 

It's hard not to be frustrated when

1. you don't know where your parcels are

2. you're worried about your customers

3. you're worried about INR cases

4. you're worried about things not making it for the holidays

5. canada post customer service is USELESS (they apparently can't track anything)

6. there is no end in sight with the strike

7. the government isnt doing anything despite pleas 

8. you're paying the same amount of money for services that are currently not functioning

9. you're stressed because of it

[esclyons]

Can you as an ebay inside advisor, give us any good reason to not close our stores down,  half of mail untracked goes through missasauga/toronto.. and there is almost a 30 day backlog in the system,, it is getting to the point where i am afraid to log into ebay in the morning for the fear , of items not received, or items being received late.. it is very apparent Canada post is not working the backload in the order in which it has been received,.. i have items that were ,mailed 10 days ago with tracking and a week later there is no updates.. and yet i have mailed items with tracking 5 days ago, and they have been delivered.. at what point if ever will ebay say, stop selling..                      

[forester_studios]

The Liberal government may be counting on union votes. However we small business people vote too and Trudeau may lose a lot of votes from the business community.

I expect some group will be counting the losses to the Canadian economy during the rest of 2018. It will be very interesting to see how much damage is done and CUPW will be seen as the perpetrators.

Bottom line is things have to change. Canada post is not sustainable on its present course. It's prices are too high for what it offers. It has steadily declined over the years. In 2015 I could mail an item to the USA for $5 by light packet. Now it costs $8.49! to send by small packet since they discontinued light packet. My sales to the USA used to be about 60% of my business. Now its about 20%.

[silverpinups]

Today I read, the latest update- government is giving CP a couple more days to settle this. A COUPLE MORE DAYS? Liberals are counting on union votes in the future so they are treading carefully. I know I will consider this with my vote, with allowing the union to keep the country hostage for this long and during the busiest time period of the year.

Trudeau and Company better worry more about everyone else that is effected by this rotating strike then the CUPW votes.

I know I will be basing my vote in 2019 on how quickly the Trudeau Government responds to this postal crisis.  

[oldhousejunk]

I agree! why are we having to pay the same rates to canada post, to have our packages just sit on a trailer for weeks?! My Canadian customers have been understanding but most of my US ones just want their money back. Nobody needs this stress this time of year!

[reveur*]

oh boy... from Canada Post website:

With all efforts exhausted to restore operations while the labour dispute continues, Canada Post is advising commercial customers and Canadians that mail and parcels in or entering its network will have long and unpredictable delays before being delivered.

This is likely to be the situation for the foreseeable future, meaning the next several weeks, including the peak holiday season and through January 2019.

The postal service remains operational, but it is not able to honour its delivery standards for any product because of prolonged and ongoing rotating strikes. The strikes have created massive backlogs of mail and parcels already in our network, just days before we expect millions more parcels from Black Friday and Cyber Monday online sales.

The extra resources that normally allow Canada Post to deliver peak volumes are all constrained because of ongoing rotating strikes and labour disruptions. Employees represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers are no longer working overtime or weekends and temporary employees are discouraged from working extra hours. With the backlogs, customers are running out of trailers and equipment, such as containers, because they are sitting full of parcels and mail, unable to be unloaded, rather than being emptied and made available for the next customer.

While there will be delays across the country, Canada Post expects the worst delays for mail and parcels will be for items that originate or are destined for southern and southwestern Ontario. This is because the country's largest and busiest mail and parcels processing plants, in Toronto, have the highest volumes and have been left idle repeatedly for several days by the union's rotating strikes. As central hubs for the entire country, they see a disproportionately large flow of items.

The backlogs also affect mail and parcels entering Canada from other countries. Currently, our facilities in Vancouver, Edmonton and Montréal are also experiencing severe backlogs.

Once Canada Post receives mail or parcels from customers, it is processing and delivering as much as possible on a first-in, first-out basis. International items will require screening by the Canada Border Services Agency and we are working in partnership with them to manage the significant existing backlog.

The best advice we can give to customers looking to mitigate these circumstances for their mailings or parcel inductions is below and will be updated often as circumstances change.

What to expect

Major induction and processing delays for all originating packages and mail coming from Southwestern Ontario (Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton-Kitchener-London, Barrie-Sudbury areas – L, M, N, P postal codes).

Major processing and delivery delays for all packages and mail destined/going to Toronto (L and M postal codes).

As early as the end of the week, Canada Post may be unable to honour pickups and induct items in the GTA due to lack of trailers and space.

Customers can go to canadapost.ca/update for updates or follow us on twitter @canadapostcorp for the latest developments.

Thank you for your continued patience.

And...

with other news:

"Labour Minister Patty Hajdu said Monday that the Canada Post strike “feels like parenting sometimes,”

Yes it's so funny, especially for small businesses. Especially for people in Canada making their living relying on postal services to deliver product. The average Joe doesn't have a union to back them, doesn't have options to get $1000 for well.. doing their job, doesn't get a decent hourly rate, etc. yet will be held hostage due to incompetent government and a power hungry union head that "doesn't want to cause the public harm"

I have closed most of my listings, and added UPS to my american ones. it's more expensive but at least they give you a 3 day delivery guarantee for their slowest and cheapest service. But I still have 6 parcels with unknown locations, most likely sitting in trailers that were mailed on  November 13. An additional 3-5 parcels mailed this week that will probably be stuck in trailers too. Let's see what happens by Friday but I am not holding my breath, I just know I will take this into consideration when I vote in 2019.

[reveur*]

Can anyone shine some light on any INR cases they have received? How has ebay responded to you? 

PS I put in a service ticket with CP for parcel not delivered, as no one can tell me where it is and I get an expected resolution date of 2019-02-13 LOL!!!!! 

[widgetc]

"As early as the end of the week, Canada Post may be unable to honour pickups and induct items in the GTA due to lack of trailers and space."

This basically means the Christmas shopping season is a washout. It is really too late for even legislation to fix things in time. Some businesses won't survive.