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The Joys of a Postal Strike

RichB

RichB

Well-known member
With the continuing strike here in the north, many businesses have been eating the difference in cost between Post Office and Courier rates, the rates are usually pretty close. Last week the Couriers announced they are pausing accepting parcels thru third party shippers.

Today I heard from a hobby store that the cost of shipping a couple of kits ordered during their Black Friday sale had been nearly tripled by the Courier. The shop will hold my order until things get back to some sort of normalcy.

Maybe it will be a Ukrainian Christmas (technically Orthodox Christmas as the Ukrainian church has officially adopted the Gregorian calendar) present for me (or Robbie Burns Day or Easter...)

Cheers,
RichB
 
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I had ordered some masks for the Betty bomber in the twins campaign and I was hoping they would arrive before the strike started but they did not. :smack:
 
Still no action on the CP strike? 24% pay increase seems like a fantasy. Your postmen don't work on Saturdays do they?
I understand Canada Post has lost 2.99 BILLION dollars in the last 6 years. If this is factual, this doesn't say "I deserve a raise." to me.
It sounds like high time to fire the postal union fat cats. A different PM would be good too.

Remember what President Ronald Reagan did in the US when the air traffic controller's strike was on?
He fired every one of them and had the FAA hire new people.

I have an order languishing in Canada myself. A present for George in Colorado. Not a matter of life and death.
 
I have a package that should have made it here before the strike but it spent three days doing a tour of the GTA before heading to Edmonton. It left Edmonton at midnight of the day they called the walkout for 0600 local. It could be sitting in our Post Office or the truck could have been sent back to Edmonton without unloading.

There were counter and counter-counter proposals exchanged over the weekend but no real movement yet.

Inside workers and the transport drivers work weekends. The Delivery workers deliver during peak times (such as Christmas) and for the premium shipping options.

Cheers,
RichB
 
In the UK the postal workers have killed their own jobs with a strike.
During the last strike many like me used couriers and never returned to PO . The letter post has died with advent of e-mails and they cant compete with the courier services for small packages up to pallets.

I order parts from Italy before lunchtime and receive them the following morning via DHL, less than 24 hours from Italy to the UK
Post would be a week -10 days. for same price
 
I have three step kids working for USPS. They work they buys off, sometimes 7 days a week. I am all for a honest days wage for a honest days pay, but...

Having been a teacher for 20 years I was involved in several "discussion" of a contract. they were all shams; the union and the BOE already knew what was going to happen and went through the step to keep the"little people" happy.

I am currently waiting for 2 bottles of paint I ordered 1 December, they are somewhere between Indy and CLE but nobody knows. where... UPS/RedX would have had them here but the 5th and I'd not ne stewing about it....
 
I went thru the process as well. Negotiations didn't start until 1.5 to 2 years after the contract expired. Wage increases were often legislated. Our classification voted for binding arbitration one time, the union bosses weren't happy about that and changed the rules. Our local also forgot we existed and didn't tell us we were on strike. Always great fun, I won't miss that anymore.

Couriers up here often don't deliver out of sight of a city or if there is no street address. Some hire "gig" contractors to deliver, some pass those parcels on to the Post Office.

When it comes to international parcels, they like to act as a Customs Broker, for your convenience, and charge you $30 to tell you that there are no customs fees. You can do the clearance yourself but you have to go to the Customs Office in person and jump thru their hoops. From here it's a 6 hour round trip and will cost about $100.

Cheers,
RichB
 
Looks like the strike is over, for now, maybe. The minister has directed the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to determine if negotiations are truly deadlocked. If they are, the existing agreement will be extended to 22 May 25 and the union ordered back to work. This could happen as early as Monday.

In the mean time, a commission will be established to study Canada Post's structure from both the business and consumer view and determine why negotiations have failed.

Guaranteed neither side will be happy with this.

Cheers,
RichB
 
That's good news! Now all the backlog has to be slogged through by folks that sound like they didn't do such a great job before. I wish you luck my friend!
 
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