Canada Post Strike End In Sight

Tomorrow's return of Canada Post: For the labor, a mixed bag; otherwise, HALLELUJAH!

It is a relief. Hopefully they will reach agreement on a new contract before May, or this could happen again.

FYI CP won't start accepting new mail until this Thursday, and if you're receiving/sending mail with Canada, expect delays as they work through the backlog.

Yay, finally. I have a package from a Canadian auction house sitting in a warehouse somewhere. Hopefully not underneath a package of perishable fruit. Probably not, since we are talking Canada, not Mexico or Hawaii or something. I once had a box of fresh (not yet ripe) persimmons sent to me by Priority Mail (within the US) that got stuck/lost for a couple of weeks. When it finally arrived it was literally dripping. The box was so soggy it was no longer square. USPS delivered it anyway.

But I digress. I also have a couple of letters out there somewhere that I mailed recently to Canada, hoping for some good aux markings returned with Service Suspended, but nothing was returned yet. Maybe they are sitting in a warehouse too, waiting for the strike to end.

I wonder how they will prioritize the deliveries. I assume FIFO, but maybe they would prioritize newly mailed packages and cards to get them there before Christmas, and the packages and letters that are already a month late, what's another week delay..

Thanks for the good news (and sorry for the mail carriers that now have to work an extra hard holiday season).

I


I would expect a lot of it to be LIFO (Last In First Out) if they just stuck the mail carts in a warehouse somewhere. Or random. I have difficulty believing that there would be any intelligent planning in the restarting of the mail.

I also have a small package mailed from Canada the day before the strike began, and caught up in the strike. I hope to see it by mid-January.

Edited to clarify package in final sentence originated in Canada

So happy the mail will be flowing again...I'm waiting on 11 shipments of stamps from Canada!!

Scott

According to Canada Post, they are taking a FIFO approach to parcels already in the system. Not sure if that applies to regular letters. Our small town PO was accepting mail today actually - they are always very accommodating.

The USPS tracking page still has the banner "ALERT: EFFECTIVE NOVEMBER 29, 2024, INTERNATIONAL MAIL SERVICE TO CANADA IS TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED, DUE TO THE STRIKE OF THE CANADIAN UNION OF POSTAL WORKERS."

And "Calculate a Price" to Canada says, "At this time, all mail services to Canada are not available."

I never got my letters to Canada returned, so apparently they were held and will eventually be delivered.

ZebraMan - I'm thinking the same. I knew there was a strike but didn't see the notice that USPS wasn't accepting mail for Canada and mailed a bunch of Christmas cards a couple of weeks ago. They haven't come back so I'm hoping they're somewhere in a holding pattern.

Their IT person is gone for the holidays and will be back next year.

This week I've received mail from the US, France and Spain that arrived in Canada before or during the strike, and was held in CP facilities for the duration. So mail is flowing - slowly - now, but obviously a big backlog to work through still.

I still have NOT received any of my ebay purchases from November or December

This is the latest from USPS:

"USPS suspension of acceptance of mail and packages bound for Canada continues at this time

Effective Dec. 23, 2024, the Postal Service has been advised by Canada Post that the strike by its employees has ended. USPS suspension of acceptance of mail and packages bound for Canada remains temporarily unchanged as we monitor Canada Post's progress as they process the volumes that were staged during the strike. We anticipate reopening acceptance of Canada bound volume within the next two weeks and we appreciate our customers patience as we continue to monitor developments in Canada.

The Postal Service is closely monitoring the situation and will continue to update customers until the situation returns to normal. Regular updates on all postal service disruptions in Canada are available at CanadaPost.ca/negotiations (link) or please visit our International Service Alerts page for the most up to date information:

I have received 3 or 4 of my orders from Canada in the last week, still waiting on quite a few more. FYI, I'm in Colorado.


Scott

I monitor the "return to normal" as both a buyer and seller. I mailed my backlog of sold items on Dec. 18th. Most have arrived, so recently posted mail is moving. I base that on received feedback.

I am still waiting on many incoming items. I sense that CPC, as a whole, is making little effort to clear the backlog of stored mail. My volume of incoming mail is no different than before the strike. One coin I bought, mailed Nov. 18th from England, arrived Dec. 23rd. Another, a stamp purchase from Norway, mailed Nov. 19th, is yet to show up in Canada.

I did receive a single item today, a credit card statement for November.

That is what happens in when there is no competition.

Utter BS!

We had competition here. That included a Royal Mail and Deutsche Post subsidiary. It got worse. Everything sent through the former disappeared. In the end, only one competitor remained. The items of mail sent through that one, regularly, were dumped in canals or shrubbery.

PostNL had and has legal obligations as have many national carriers. They must deliver to everyone, including those who live in rural areas. They must do so five days a week and within a set time. The commercial ones do not have those legal obligations. The end result tends to be that the national carrier is left with unprofitable delivery areas. At the same time, the commercial ones underpay there deliverers, who throw the mail in the shrubbery.

That is odd. When I think of government contracts I think of competition with outside entities competing for mail delivery contracts which of course have performance and quality stipulations. They submit their proposals which are carefully vetted based upon things such as previous performance, financial strength, experience, key personnel etc. and they are bonded. The awarder sets the parameters of the contract, not the awardee. This is done all of the time by governments around the World for all types of things from serving food to space travel. "Throw the mail in the shrubbery" and you throw your contract out the window.




Calling the notion that competition can be healthy "utter BS" seems a bit harsh but then again I don't think we are talking about the same thing.

Example: In the 70's and 80's US automakers were producing cars that were mostly rubbish. Enter competition, the Japanese manufacturers, and they suddenly had new standards to rise to in order to stay relevant and alive. The mail is a different product but the principal remains the same. If I knew that nobody else could take away my revenue stream I have little incentive, other than being a nice guy, to go the extra mile (pun intended) to deliver the mail.