A lot of people have been asking exactly what does this strike mean for the general consumer? I found this great write up on the CP site.
Mail Deposit and Delivery
■All mail processing plants and letter carrier depots are closed and all facilities have been secured. No new mail will be accepted. Large volume mailers cannot deposit or receive mail.
■Mail Delivery is suspended to all addresses served by letter carriers represented by the CUPW (Urban). Some mail delivery will continue over the first few days of the lockout to clear mail remaining in the system in suburban and rural areas where delivery employees are represented by a different bargaining unit.
■Street Letter Boxes, mail slots on Community Mail Boxes, and other Canada Post mail-receiving equipment have been cleared and sealed to prevent mail from being deposited.
■Through a previous agreement, Canada Post and CUPW will ensure that a number of socio-economic cheques will be delivered on June 20. Please visit canadapost.ca/cheques for more information.
Post Offices
■All post offices staffed by CUPW members are closed.
■Post Offices located in suburban and rural areas staffed by members of the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants (CPAA) continue to be open but cannot accept new mail.
■Authorized Dealer Post Offices are also open but cannot accept new mail. Some Dealer Post Offices may be operating at reduced hours.
■Post Offices that remain open offer limited products such as MoneyGram and Money Orders but no new mail will be accepted. Many open Post Offices will also have parcels and other mail items delivered prior to the lockout available for customers to pick up.
Electronic Services
■Canada Post’s website, canadapost.ca, is fully operational and offers up-to-date information on the labour situation.
■The Electronic Shipping Tools and Online Business Centre are operational, but some functions may be limited.
■epost is fully operational and remains a recommended tool for consumers to use for important communications and to receive statements and effect payments to many financial institutions, utilities, and retailers.
Service Guarantees
■Effective immediately, all service guarantees are suspended, pending resolution of the labour situation. Check product terms and conditions on canadapost.ca for more information.
Duration
■Canada Post cannot predict how long the current labour situation will last.
■We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this situation is causing. We are making every attempt to reach a settlement and resume normal operations as soon as possible
■All mail processing plants and letter carrier depots are closed and all facilities have been secured. No new mail will be accepted. Large volume mailers cannot deposit or receive mail.
■Mail Delivery is suspended to all addresses served by letter carriers represented by the CUPW (Urban). Some mail delivery will continue over the first few days of the lockout to clear mail remaining in the system in suburban and rural areas where delivery employees are represented by a different bargaining unit.
■Street Letter Boxes, mail slots on Community Mail Boxes, and other Canada Post mail-receiving equipment have been cleared and sealed to prevent mail from being deposited.
■Through a previous agreement, Canada Post and CUPW will ensure that a number of socio-economic cheques will be delivered on June 20. Please visit canadapost.ca/cheques for more information.
Post Offices
■All post offices staffed by CUPW members are closed.
■Post Offices located in suburban and rural areas staffed by members of the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants (CPAA) continue to be open but cannot accept new mail.
■Authorized Dealer Post Offices are also open but cannot accept new mail. Some Dealer Post Offices may be operating at reduced hours.
■Post Offices that remain open offer limited products such as MoneyGram and Money Orders but no new mail will be accepted. Many open Post Offices will also have parcels and other mail items delivered prior to the lockout available for customers to pick up.
Electronic Services
■Canada Post’s website, canadapost.ca, is fully operational and offers up-to-date information on the labour situation.
■The Electronic Shipping Tools and Online Business Centre are operational, but some functions may be limited.
■epost is fully operational and remains a recommended tool for consumers to use for important communications and to receive statements and effect payments to many financial institutions, utilities, and retailers.
Service Guarantees
■Effective immediately, all service guarantees are suspended, pending resolution of the labour situation. Check product terms and conditions on canadapost.ca for more information.
Duration
■Canada Post cannot predict how long the current labour situation will last.
■We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this situation is causing. We are making every attempt to reach a settlement and resume normal operations as soon as possible
for updates please keep checking here.
the only thing i get are bills from companies who refuse to move with the times and send them via the internet. and of course, junk mail. other than that canada post is a waste of my tax dollar. i hope they continue the strike and people will learn of other more convenient (and cheaper) ways of keeping in touch that will make canada post obsolete. and those that do not have computers at home, there are many places that computers are available…and some are free (library).
a waste of your tax dollar,,,,,,,,,,,,,what a joke,,,,,,,,,,not one dollar of anyone’s tax dollars go into canada post, as a matter of a fact, they paid millions of dollars to the canadian gov’t in taxes themselves last year and every year, they make their own money and stand on their own, so why don’t you get your facts right,,,,,,,,,,,as for wanting them to go out of business, why are so many people wanting all the people who work at canada post to lose their jobs,,,,,,,,,why so they can go on welfare too and then yes, your tax dollars will be at work
yea but i do a lot of online shopping and now im gonna receive my parcels i dunno when???
Small businessws use country services, not private-owned compagnies like fedex…
So i have to pick up some stuff from a post office that arrived prior the strike?
How am i supposed to know it’s there? They’re supposed to call me?uuu
Just an extra update not included in the list–if you are expecting a letter or a parcel from international–the policy (UK, France and Germany, so far…) is to accept the mail at their end BUT not to send it until the strike is declared over. This is because Canada Post will not accept it at the Canadian end.
I must add for those of us who work for them. Half of us including myself are laid off until further notice therefore we dont get paid. Now we dont get paid we dont have money to pay our bills.
We dont know anything about it was told the morning of well good luck no work for you. Now we have to sit here wondering when we will go back to work and how much money we will loose (thats if some of us have a job to go back too).
Olivercat- I am expecting a lot of things from China that were en-route before the strike happened. They are listed as on their way to Canada(coming by boat). What happens when they get to the Canadian border? Will they be accepted there and held till the strike is over? It is 4 shipments to the tune of almost $1000 in shipping cost. Anybody know what will happen to these boxes? I would hate for them to get shipped back to the senders… UGG this strike is a killer<
Well said quebe.
It’s not a strike.
It’s a lockout.
I’ve canceled my paper magazines and moved them to electronic subscriptions. I’ve moved all of my bills to electronic that weren’t already… I’ll be picking up mail at the mailbox once a month instead of once a week.
And Kathy…. come on, if the union didn’t know people would be moving to electronic very quickly if they went on strike they would have walked off the job nationwide just like they did EVERY other time they did prior to this year. They tried the rotating strikes instead since it would anger people near as much.
it could be worse – these people’s package might die enroute…
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1008764–canada-post-strike-is-putting-our-honey-crops-at-risk
I have wedding invitations sitting in a postal depot somewhere !!!!
my sons paperwork for his evaluation is now stuck in the mail somewhere. they need those papers to decide if they want to bring him in for an assessment. i feel for the workers that are stuck in this situation and i hope it gets wrapped up soon so everyone can get what they need.
I thought that they were only locking them out two days a week…are they locked out permanently now? What’s the point of doing that? If they’re willing to work some days why not let them, rather than having the whole system grind to a halt…this strike/lock-out makes no sense.
The point of locking out is to make the government involve so it will pass the force back to work legislation to end the strike. Canadapost corporation is playing a really nasty trick and it angers me. Similar thing happen last year – The union went on strike, government involved and so on…hence why union only doing 24 hours strike this time so the government won’t have to step in.
I run an online business and my business is greatly affected by this lockout. My business reputation is on the line here and using fedex/ups is not an option.
Also some people comment about who would use Canadapost these days…eh…manufacture print coupons? Samples? aren’t they all from the Canadapost regular mail? Think before you speak! It’s not like they can stuff it via the monitor and “e-transfer” it to your monitor. Regular mail volume might have decrease but not parcel!
Why do people get so upset when “Big” companies make loads of money? Isn’t that their raison d’etre? It’s ok to be successful, but not too much? These are not factory workers in China making .07 and hour let’s get real. CP wants to make money, it’s a business. If you haven’t figured out you are “just a number” by now then I would say this is a good example.
.07? lol China stuff is cheap but labor is not that cheap. I think you confuse china with indian
I’m in the same boat as Katie (post 16). My orders come mostly from the U.S. and Europe, and frequent on-line shoppers would know using companies like Fedex and UPS means ridiculous brokerage fees. So either I pay more or ask my customers to pay much more, hence I’ve stayed with Canada Post. So before anymore wisdom regarding “just switch to Fedex”, just realize it’s not viable fore every CP customer. As a business owner, I have done my calculations and if switching is better for my bottom line, I would have done so.
To Jim who says things against canada post and loves his high tech stuffs sooo much, what would you feel if your Iphone broke and you need to send it for repair??? And there is no Canada post to service you, what would you feel??
Nothing is wrong with big corporations making money. Generally, a company that is successful brings more money back to the community in the form of taxes paid and worker’s wages. HOWEVER, when that big corporation makes more money, and the thousands of people that RUN the company, and in fact BUILT that company are not only being denied a share of the “fruits of labour” while a select few take home VERY big bonuses; while those workers are asked to work for even LESS (wages & benefits), that is just WRONG!!!
in this case too, it’s a public company, the wealth needs to be shared.
make no mistake by the way, their letter mail volume is not down, however it’s rate of incerase is down. whereas before they has letter mail volumes increasing at 3% a year, they are now increasing 1.5% a year, not an actual decrease, the rate of increase is lower. they have slanted the truth, and frankly the ‘savings’ they hope to have at the cost of the workers wont be given the to public consumers, it’ll be given to the mgnt. that is further perpetuating the gap between the rich getting richer, while the lower and middle class earners earn less all the while the cost of living increases.
this is not something to jump on over the workers for, they are fighting a fight that could set a precident for all middle class workers and their employers, – in this case now, it’ll be negative for most employees.. I want my mail, i want to send mail but i also support the workers who were willing to work and whose rotating strikes did not halt the mail the way the decision for mgmt to lock out its employees has.
I have so many coupons stuck in the mail 🙁 I hope they dont expire before I get them!
Mail volumes for first class mail have decreased, the publication mail and addressed Mail and unaddressed mail have increased, these sources of mail are lower costr hence lower profits.
I agree the lock out is bad for business and consumers. It will only force the migration to alternative means of communicating faster than it was orginaly evolving.
What I will say is CPC employees do have it well, they are paid well for the work they do, there are plenty other people who work just as hard for less money then a CPC employee gets paid.
I am stunned that Canada Post does not have contingency plans for creatures like the queen bees in its mail stream. I mean come on, agriculture relies on bees and pollination. No bees, no crops.
Executives at Canada Post need to get the bees to their recipients tonight.
For the SCers getting stuff sent by boat-is there any way you can send a representative (resident/family/friend to whom you can transmit a letter authorizing him/her to collect your shipment) to pick up your shipment in person at the dock from the shipper? Look into it. Might be worth the effort and maybe a car ride cross country to ensure that it gets to you.
I really hope this is resolved soon. I understand that Canada Post had to say no to the union demands but this is still an unfortunate situation. If mail service was reduced to three days a week rather than five the company could save a lot of money and reduce the number of employees.
they should just turn canada post into the LCBO logistics facility ways of doing things, and just hire temp workers… its pathetic but hey its government ran…
from my perspective here, also being a temp worker back in the day at the LCBO warehouse and never getting hired along with the other 200+ temps that work at the whitby warehouse daily without hopes of getting hired, these postal workers should be happy they make the wages they do for the job they must do DELIVERING OUR MAIL, not anyone can walk but there are many unemployed canadians who can and dont have a job and will gladly take the job for even less then half of what the current employees are getting paid
then you think of the hundreds of thousands of canadians who have completed college / university level degrees and are still jobless or working minimum wage while we got complaining postal workers who have a job that consists of a task that is so easy a monkey could do (if trained correctly (not your average monkey))
Basically it boils down to this: Either you want to strike or you don’t. None of this rotating strike garbage. You do it or you don’t. The Union wanted them to strike, so the Crown decided it for the Union, they locked them out. Now, that they are doing what they should of done in the first place, struck everywhere, they are whining about it. Be careful what you wish for. If you want to strike, make sure you can back it up. Now, if I was the Gov’t I’d do what Reagen did to the ATC controllers in the 80’s. You have 48 hrs to go back to work. If you don’t, your fired, all of you. No more Union, because there’s no more employees. And don’t give me that garbage you can’t find anyone to replace them, we’re lined up 20 deep to take a job with full benefits and a full pension that pays 24 bucks an hour to boot. If this had happened, even in the 50’s or 60’s, the Union bosses would be in prison right now for inciting Treason for the disruption of essential services to the country of Canada and the Crown. Maybe some jail time will clear some heads, and shatter some ego’s, because back then they could of looked forward to the noose.
Does anybody have any idea what would happen with the mail stuck in the traffic (either currently held at some CP depot or accepted for delivery by linking foreign postal services but not accepted by CP)?. I assume for cases where the mail is currently held at CP’s locations, it would eventually get delivered when the conflict its over, but what about the other case?
Thanks.
You employee of Port Canada are complaining for NOTHING. How can you start with the same salary as a nurse would do? What is soo “unsafe” in delevering mail? STOP complaining and go back to work. YOu guys have not specific competencies and do not merit a fat 7 weeks vacations per year.
^Karine, it helps to read the facts before you comment.
Not ALL workers get seven weeks of vacation. They, like anyone else in a normal company, earn those weeks through years of service.
It is really annoying and disgusting to see so many people spout nonsense about the whole “strike”…sorry I meant lockout.
Also, it just seems to me that there are A LOT of jealous people here. If you want those benefits, then go get a job at CP. Don’t just sit on your bum in front of a computer complaining about how life is unfair.
PS. I don’t work for CP.
I cant believe so many people are acting like this is some kind of out of nowhere mean-bosses lockout – the workers were striking and causing a big disruption and monetary loss, and then acting like they werent being a big problem and liability to CP – who only stepped up to the plate and made the most obvious move possible. If CUPW workers wanted to work, they would sign their generous contract and be back at work tomorrow. They wont miss a single day of work they arent deciding to miss by refusing to settle the contract, so Im sick and tired of this completely bunk “lockout” argument.
I think the workers who are ON STRIKE found out the hard way that there is really no public sympathy for them, or public demand to receive mail. They took a big gamble and lost, and if they dont want to lose even bigger, they should put their tails between their legs and change their negotiating points in line with the new playing field. Then, they can get back to work, CP can stop all their whining, and we can start getting our “mail” again.
i dont even get my bills and find this very stupid why not they just fire those who dont want to work and give the jobs to people who actually want to be there. that is just my 2 cents
Mark – I LOVE YOUR COMMENTS.
Ricki911 – don’t start with that “i’m not getting paid”. you pay union dues so that in these situations you get strike pay!
I have a Commerce degree and my first job I started off less than what these people are making. Many people with B.A.’s could work for years without making $50000+ which is what $24/hour amounts too! It is RIDICULOUS to think high-school educated people are making more than people who took the time to go to university/trade school. In the recession, these people should be THANKFUL for a job. Your NOT making minimum wage which is what many high school educated people are forced to work for and you get MANY benefits that they lack. I think it is ridiculous to strike over this amount of money. Think of a single mother working at a retail store for minimum wage trying to take care of her children – she doesn’t ever get 7 weeks vacation, sick days or benefits!
Sorry Quebe but you are not quite right. When Canada made Canada Post into an independent corporation , Canada Post did not have to pay billions of dollars for the assets , they simply were given the assets so it is very easy to make “profits ” if your startup cost were paid for by taxpayers. If they had paid for these assets they would be paying postal workers a lot less, to compete with private companies.
All I can say, is Canada Post be careful the UK Royal Mail is being privatised, just like the buses and rail system already have and my god what a better and more efficient system it is. I hope the strike or lockout or whatever you want to call it carries on and Canada Post disappears and are privatised, if that happens we can expect a better service, of course it will be monitored by the government as it is in the UK so there will be no excess price increases and price wars. Look at a lot of Canadian cities the garbage collections are already private and I know I get great service.
So, all you high tech people that live in big cities with your iPhones & iPads with ePosts, and shaw…..I live in the middle of nowhere, and UPS/Fedex/DHL don’t bring anything anywhere near my house because I am not on their GPS systems. I don’t have Telus Optik TV, can’t get it here. I don’t have on demand internet, can’t get it here, but I do get my deliveries in a little post office box from Canada Post, so I hope they settle their differences and that no CPC people lose their jobs, so that the middle of nowhere can still get parcels and mail.
the part that they supposed to mail things for people in my street never happen so im so tired of the situation i need my mail okay it almost the end of the month and those moron has not fix jack well they better do it fast
Good day! I simply want to give a huge thumbs up for the great information you will have right here on this post.
I might be coming back to your blog for extra soon.