Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

[teenytrinkets]

Is anyone closely following strike negotiations?

I'll likely have Time Away scheduled to avoid any Strike mayhem, but wondering what will happen to any lettermail/ packages that are already in the "stream". Will they sit at a depot/DC or on a truck for the duration, or will they likely have a rotating strike and keep moving things along with just delays?

[mrdutch1001]

Auctions will continue to run and for your fixed price listings, there is the choice to "Pause sales for up to 30 days while you’re away" OR "Allow sales for up to 15 days while you’re away" ..No, the fixed price listings do not "dissappear", but are still visible...as you can decide if buyers can purchase items or not....

[chicweb]

When buying with ebay label, I don't have to change anything about address, phone numbers or email. Everything is handled by eBay.

I just put my measurements, check the shipping method (Right now, everything Canada Post is not available in the eBay label section).

Click on buy and print. That's all.

[38e_avenue]

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@chicweb wrote:

(Right now, everything Canada Post is not available in the eBay label section).

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Indeed!! Very surprising!!! Holy moly, it looks serious!!!! ☹️

[tellephoto]

Message from Union President

Postal Workers Under Attack: CPC Imposes New Terms and Conditions of Employment on Both Units

 

Friday November 15 2024

2023-2027/161

No. 45

Today, November 15, Canada Post informed the Union that as of 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time, the collective agreements for both the Urban Operations and Rural Suburban Mail Carriers (RSMC) bargaining units no longer apply. Today is the day you find out what Canada Post would do if there was no Union or collective agreement to protect you.

The Employer’s attack includes:

• Cancelling coverage of short-term disability and all health benefits for you and your family. This will hurt our vulnerable members the most. Remember this when the Employer calls you “colleague” or “teammate.”
• Threatening to “lay off” some “permanent” employees and ending all assignments of temporary employees and cutting the hours of part-timers.
• Cancelling allowances. CPC has not listed which allowances they will pay. Allowances might include shift differential, among others. They’re also cutting the double-time overtime rate completely.
• Cancelling earned and agreed to Vacation Leave. CPC has tried this in the past and has been told by an arbitrator this is a violation of the Canada Labour Code.

While CPC will not honour Vacation under the Code, the Employer says it will abide by the minimum allowable for other leaves. If CPC does not honour all leaves under the Canada Labour Code, please contact your Local.

The Union could not leave our members exposed to these conditions.

Canada Post has shown its true stripes. The boss is not your friend.

In Solidarity,

Jan Simpson

National President

[tellephoto]

Striking Canada Post union demands free sex changes

• November 15, 2024
• Walid Tamtam

Canada Post employees have gone on strike as of Friday, November 15, with their union releasing a list of demands that includes free sex changes.  

Striking Canada Post union demands free sex changes

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) announced their points of contention on Friday, as thousands of workers nationwide have stopped delivering mail.  

Among their gripes is the fact that their employees can’t get sex change operations for free, as indicated by their inclusion of “gender-affirming care” to their benefits plan, along with other financial items.

Just as woke, the CUPW is asking for “precautionary cessation of work for pregnant and breastfeeding employees,” rather than “women.” 

The CUPW did not include any of this language in their press release on the strike this morning, opting for a more conventional argument surrounding fair wages and safe working conditions. 

CUPW’s website lists a swath of unresolved issues, including wage increases in line with inflation, adding 10 paid medical days and 7 paid personal days, allowing medical days to be banked, and protections against technological change.

The strike is causing significant disruptions in mailing service across the country, at a time of increased demand due to the upcoming Holiday and Black Friday sales. 

Canadian Businessman and President of Shopify, Harley Finkelstein, has called on the Federal Government to show their “backbone” and force the strike to end. 

“Canada Post is going on strike 2 weeks before Black Friday devastates small businesses,” he  posted on X.  

Shopify is Canada’s second most valuable company, second to only the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). Shopify is responsible for streamlining digital dashboards and operations for small businesses with online stores. 

Purolator employees have decided to “stand in solidarity” with Canada Post workers by not handling any packages associated with Canada Post for as long as the strike persists. 

Purolator is also a subsidiary of Canada Post, a crown corporation that benefits from the government-imposed monopoly through the Canada Post Corporation Act granting it exclusive privilege over all letter mail to or from any point in Canada. 

Canada Post’s advantages haven’t held it from significant scrutiny in the past, including scandals revolving around privacy and vaccine mandates. 

Last year in May, Canada’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner stated that Canada Post is breaking the law by gleaning information from outside the envelopes and packages to build marketing lists that it rents out to private businesses. 

[needsmorerobots]

Here is a nice helpful little FAQ about the Canada Post strike from Global News, dated November 15th.

https://globalnews.ca/news/10871404/canada-post-strike-explained-what-to-know-mail/

[tellephoto]

Canada Post is classified as an essential service. They have not been able to reach an agreement for  just under one year.  What is the Labour  Minister waiting for?  They need to legislate back to work ASAP.

[mrdutch1001]

"What is the Labour Minister waiting for?"

perhaps an email nudge from you?

steven.mackinnon@parl.gc.ca

[fergua3]

i've been through lots of these strikes and this is the way the game is played.  Gov't will say they are not going to interfere and want to let them negotiate.   In a few days, probably by Wednesday, they will say that enough time has passed, too much harm is being done to the econonmy and then step in.

If they try to legislate back to work, it could be a problem however,  NDP will definitely not support back to work legislation.  Bloc might but are uncertain.  Conservatives should, since the are the party that is supposed to be the champions of business, but Pierrre is more interested in his own political future and may not want to give the Liberals anything that could be perceived as a 'win'.  Even though it is for the good of the nation as a whole.

However, the Minister of Labor may use the same tactic he's used for the dock and railway strikes and get them back to work that way.  From the conversations i had before the strike, the 2 i talked to hope to get legislated back quickly,  as they don't want to strike at all.

[flipistics]

I suspect they'll give them until a few days before Black Friday (maybe the 26th or 27th). If there's good progress being made, then negotiations will probably continue. If there's a complete deadlock, then they'll have no choice but try to order them to forced arbitration.  There's such a large difference that I don't see much progress being made.

[tellephoto]

We are not alone. Just a glimpse of what is also happening to our neighbours south of us.

Net loss for the 2024 fiscal year totalled $9.5 billion, up from $6.5 billion last year, said a Nov. 14 statement from the agency reflecting its earnings. The $3 billion increase in losses occurred at the same time the agency had a slight revenue increase from $78.18 billion to $79.53 billion. The revenue uptick was not supported by an increase in mail volume, which fell from 116 billion units to 112 billion units.

According to the USPS Office of the Inspector General, the postal agency “relies almost entirely on the revenue generated from postage” to cover the costs of delivering mail.

[hunab_ku]

I have 2 packages destined to the US that appear to be stuck in Canada. This is annoying. I guess it's my fault for using Canada Post the week prior to the strike. Hopefully they get legislated back to work soon.

[sin-n-dex]

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@hunab_ku wrote:

I have 2 packages destined to the US that appear to be stuck in Canada. This is annoying. I guess it's my fault for using Canada Post the week prior to the strike. Hopefully they get legislated back to work soon.

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I think lots of people are in the same boat.

I returned from Japan on Nov 11 (and I knew before I left there might be a strike, but there was no strike when I got home from Japan), turned my store back on and sold two Canadian orders right away. The next morning they gave the notice. I sold one more thing while I was at work (before I had a chance to go home and block Canada, I'm listing on .com so it's possible to block Canada).

After Canada was blocked, I had one more sale for four items on Thursday night, that one was a bit more money and I'm a little concerned it was purchased with the intention of filing an INR because of the strike. On thursday night people knew the strike was probable for Friday morning. For some reason 900 of my listings didn't update when I excluded Canada and were available to purchase by Canadian buyers (there's a whole thread about that on the US boards).

So now I have 4 missing in action that haven't been delivered yet. There was also talk that it would be rotating strikes at least for a while, so I guess I wasn't too concerned. I'm out $50 if my buyers file INRs. I use Stallion Express for US shipping so it's only my Canadian orders that are stuck in transit.

C.

[wandering_nephilim]

I've been skimming but I want to know what this would mean as a buyer. I regularly purchase retro games from Japan and have about 8 games in transit, 2 or 3 of which were sent after this Friday. I'm just wondering what that means for me, outside of the obvious fact that I just won't be getting them until after this strike ends. (who knows when that'll be...) do they just sit in a warehouse? Will the games that got shipped after and probably not in the CanPost system get returned?

[fergua3]

i'm in a similar situation with 2 incoming packages.    I think what happens is they will land at a Canadian airport, same one they would normally land at if there were no strike and then get secured in Canada Post's facility at that airport.   Once the strike ends they will be turned over to Customs for review, then delivered like usual.  I think this is what happens.

[dinomitesales]

Assuming they were sent by the Japanese national postal service they will come to Canada, be presented to customs, be processed by customs, and then be securely held until Canada Post is available to pick up and transport them.

[wandering_nephilim]

Okay, that's a relief then. Last thing I want is for them to be sent back to Japan.

[tellephoto]

Negotiations Update: Bargaining Continues with Help of Mediators

Wednesday November 20 2024

2023-2027/163

No. 47

Yesterday, the Negotiators continued bargaining with the help of the government’s mediators. The parties discussed several issues.

RSMC Unit

For the RSMC unit, our focus was on pay stability for route holders. As we move to the new hourly rate system, we need to ensure that route holders can count on stable pay cheques, even as volumes and points of call fluctuate.

We also continued discussions on the validation process and maximizing and maintaining 8-hour routes.

Urban Unit

The Urban unit continued talks on weekend delivery. On this issue, the Union has several priorities. We cannot allow weekend work to undermine our full-time letter carrier routes on weekdays. Further, we cannot allow the Employer to create a second-class of employees to deliver parcels as cheaply as they can.

The Union will not take part in a race to the bottom with “gig-economy” platforms, whose business model depends on cheap labour with no rights.

[ricarmic]

Interesting and scary from a couple perspectives news item...

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/they-squandered-10-years-of-opportunity-canada-post-strike-exposes-l... 

[tellephoto]

A word from the Union

Canada Post’s Third Quarter Report

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Monday November 25 2024

2023-2027/168

No. 52

On November 22, Canada Post released its financial results for the 3rd quarter of 2024.

For the three months ending in September 2024, the Corporation reported a loss from operations of $313 million. Overall revenue was down $15 million compared to the same time last year, as growing revenue from Neighbourhood Mail and Transaction Mail were not enough to offset lower parcel volumes.

Public Services over Profits

Canada Post is a public service. It is not a private, for-profit operation.

Postal workers deliver to every address in the country – no matter how remote. We go places the private sector won’t go because profit not service is their bottom line. While the competition puts corporate profit over everything else, we’re proud to offer services to everyone.

In the past week, we’ve heard many stories about just how much people and communities rely on our public postal service. In much of the country, no competitor can match our service quality, coverage, or our prices. Postal workers have every reason to be proud of the work they do. 

The Whole Story

No doubt, Canada Post will try to use this report to its advantage at the bargaining table and in the media. We can’t let them scare us into taking concessions that sell out our future co-workers.

The Corporation says it is running out of cash. But remember, Canada Post has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into new equipment, new vehicles, and a new parcel processing centre over the past few years.

Workers can’t be made to pay for the Corporation’s current financial condition.

A Way Forward

The best way for Canada Post to recover from its current financial situation is to invest in new, revenue-generating services like postal banking and wellness check-ins.

Years ago, we presented Canada Post with plans to expand services at our public post office. It’s time the Employer takes our proposals seriously to provide Canadians with the world-class service they deserve.

In solidarity,

Jan Simpson

National President