Canada Postal Strike

[6sHyper]

Good thing for yours and Fightercats deal to is that westbeach lives right besdie the border and Canadapost will have it in USPS hands by tuesday if he ships it monday, so i dont think you guys need to worry!! i just sent a package to Ontario so i shipped it with Canpar to be safe, but looks like the strike wont be too serious anyway.

[LiPo Power]

Got mine parcel shipped.
In Mississauga and Toronto they are still at work....

[westbeach]

Ben's special parcel got mailed off today. From the sounds of it, parcels and mail are still moving. Might take a day or two longer but things are definitely moving. The west coast is still in the clear. Anything going south definitely won't have any problems. Cheers

[chummer]

I have already mentioned this but I think it needs a repost.


The mail will keep moving, Don't panick. It will slow down but your parcels will arrive. Management is going fill positions. It is not the whole Postal system that is going to strike.

That's what the nice lady at Post Office told me.

[LiPo Power]

It is a rotating strike....
That is why staff comes and goes...

[FighterCat57]

Ben's special parcel got mailed off today. From the sounds of it, parcels and mail are still moving. Might take a day or two longer but things are definitely moving. The west coast is still in the clear. Anything going south definitely won't have any problems. Cheers

Got it in PERFECT shape!

Two 1520's... Check
Two ICE 160's... Check

Two 5s5k40c... Check
Two Wire Drive Systems... Check
Two Stingers... Check

Idea for paint...

Will start a thread on it soon!

Back on topic, boat arrived, in perfect shape, packed very well. =)

[ray schrauwen]

I am receiving what I ordered to and you can thank the postal workers for not completely striking.... yet that is.

For Immediate Release

OTTAWA – The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is accusing Canada Post of aggressively trying to force postal workers out on a full-scale national strike in order to secure back-to-work legislation from the majority Conservative government.

“Canada Post is doing everything it can to provoke the union into a national walkout in the hope that the government will intervene,” said CUPW’s National President and Chief Negotiator Denis Lemelin.

Although CUPW offered to suspend its rotating strikes and go back to work, provided that the expired collective agreement is reinstated in order to protect members on the work floor, Canada Post management has refused. CUPW says its offer to call the strike off still stands.

“They are not interested in negotiating with us to end this strike. They want to force postal workers to take concessions,” said Lemelin. “To that end, they are suspending postal service across the country, even where no picket lines are up.”

Calling Canada Post’s recent announcement that service will be reduced to three days a week a “partial lockout,” Lemelin urged the media and the public to get all the facts. At a press conference held today, the union distributed a list of pointed questions that it wants the media and the public to ask Canada Post.

Since the rotating strikes began ten days ago, less than one third of the population has experienced any loss in service. The union points out that Canada Post’s reduction will amount to a far greater impact in just one day than anything the union has done so far. “Despite mail piling up in its plants, Canada Post is unnecessarily reducing service across the country,” said Lemelin. “They do not have to impact the service to get us to negotiate. We are at the bargaining table and willing to negotiate a settlement.” “There would be no stalemate at the bargaining table if Canada Post were prepared to negotiate.”

That was from CUPW's web site but, mainstream news kinda twists it.

Just spoke to my post man too, he tells me the real story. What a mess... CPC is not willing to do anything but, kill service and jobs, nice.

Mainstream:

OTTAWA - Canada Post says it is losing tens of millions of dollars in business because of rotating strikes by its workers, and some of that may never return.

Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton says the Crown corporation has lost $65 million in direct revenue — including $35 million in cancelled contracts — since rotating strikes began June 2.

"They are digging to the bone, they are pushing major customers to go to the competition," he said.

"There are spin-off losses, there are customers cancelling contracts, there are customers moving away and there are Canadians not putting mail on the general mail stream."

Hamilton said the strike is merely serving to speed the decline of the business, warning that some of their major customers may never return.

The firm's warning follows a news conference in Ottawa on Monday morning in which union president Denis Lemelin accused Canada Post of trying to provoke a general strike.

Lemelin said Canada Post's decision to only deliver mail three days a week was tantamount to a "partial lockout" designed to provoke a general strike and force Ottawa to order the workers back.

And he disputes Hamilton's contention that the rotating strikes are a major disruption, saying there is still plenty of mail in the system. The work stoppages are only affecting 30 per cent of the country on any given day, he said.

"The government has to send them a clear message to sit and negotiate and maybe it will be a different ball game," he said.

"About a general strike, we will evaluate the situation."

The two sides were scheduled to return to the bargain table again today, but so far the talks have yielded little progress. The company rejected the union's latest offer to operate under the previous contract.

[ron1950]

ya all keept saying lazy postal workers and all when its management that causes strikes usually...all they think of is the bottom line and cutting jobs and service........

[Stinger9D9]

So us members in the GTA may have only noticed minor disruptions until now, but buckle up - CUPW is striking Toronto (South Central - 969 Eastern Ave) tonight.

That's a pretty big plant - about 2 times the floor area of the whole Tower Hobbies Warehouse. It loads a LOT of trucks and processes a LOT of mail.

But that's just the start. They haven't touched the BIG one in Mississauga. Gateway (at Dixie and Eglinton) is over 1 million square feet and it processes almost every piece of the mail entering Canada east of the prairies. It's the largest single plant they have and I'll bet the workers there are just itching to go.

If (when) they walk out of that building, almost everyone (present company included) will be affected. (I have an MC hull on the way).

This is just about to get interesting.

[Boaterguy]

how do you know the floor area of the tower hobbies warehouse?

[Stinger9D9]

how do you know the floor area of the tower hobbies warehouse?

Just go to it on google earth and measure it. It's been my experience (working in large buildings) that it makes for a good apples to apples comparison.

I also made a couple of assumptions based on the odd old photo from the inside of the Tower (Great Planes) warehouse that a portion of it is single storey, there are probably a few extra office and mezzanine levels as well.

For the size of the postal plants, let's just say I've been through them a couple times.

Here's a photo of Tower Hobbies from MS Virtual Earth.

[chummer]

ya all keept saying lazy postal workers and all when its management that causes strikes usually...all they think of is the bottom line and cutting jobs and service........

The Bottom line is this...

OTTAWA - Canada Post says it is losing tens of millions of dollars in business because of rotating strikes by its workers, and some of that may never return.

Transaltion - Because of the threat of strikes many customers of Canada Post are finding other alternatives to moving their parcels and regular mail. Many are using courier services and Canada Post is now loosing customers. That means lost revenue, no money to pay employees which leads to layoffs. Management is left with no other choice but to cut back.

Example...This thread was posted in the swap shop to warn people of a threat to strike in the mail system. I wonder how many Canadians let a deal slide because of this threat. Now imagine the whole Country taking precautions when they need to mail something important.


There was never any threat of job cuts before this strike. The Union has made their bed, now they get to lay in it!

[northernmike]

OMG I just saw Tower hobbies IRL for the 1st time. (on google earth)... thanks!

I'm waiting for things from the UK here in Toronto. The last package took 21 days. I'm going to ask for a courier next time.

Government run services cannot keep up in these economic conditions, I think.

The costs are too high and the changes too fast for them to adapt or compete.

What's your favourite Europe -> North America Non Government run shipping method??

[ENCORE MAN]

Mike, if you use a courier, they enter the country through a customs broker. They usually charge around $30. Then you add the duty and HST. These extra costs add up to about $75 on a $300 boat or part order. It is better to plan ahead and use snail mail unless of course you a wealthy and not living on a pension as some of us are. Nice to meet you, BG

[Stinger9D9]

I have dealt with a few companies in the US that either have registered and got a GST number, so you can pay the Canadian taxes on your purchase before it is shipped (so there is no duty to process at all - hence, no brokerage fees), or have set up deals with couriers (like UPS) to give Canadians a break.

Here's one - it's a place I get metal from - they have worked out a great deal for Canadians: http://www.onlinemetals.com/ohcanada.cfm

TigerDirect (before they had a Canadian website) had a GST registration number so UPS would deliver straight to your door with no extra fees, X10 (home automation equipment) was the same way.

So it can be done (setting up shipping to Canada at reasonable rates) but I guess the retailer needs an impetus to go through the trouble (like if they got a LOT of Canadian orders on a regular basis).