Is the strike over yet? I have bushels of mail to go to Canada.

[Nick Gromicko]

Anyone have an update on the strike?

[Jeffrey R. Jonas]

As of yesterday, (Saturday), there was still a notice on my local Post Office door about not accepting mail destined for Canada.

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

They have been ordered back to work By the government .
The union says they will obey the ruling and it should Be operating Tuesday... Roy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OTTAWA—Mail could be moving again by Tuesday following speedy Senate approval of government legislation ordering locked-out Canada Post workers back to their jobs.
During a rare Sunday sitting, senators vigorously debated — but ultimately approved — a bill that sets the stage for resumption of mail service.
The legislation received royal assent just hours later.
After giving the bill a second reading, members of the upper chamber heard testimony from federal ministers, Canada Post executives and union members.
Should the measures become law Sunday, letter sorting would resume Monday in preparation for delivery the next day, Canada Post chief operating officer Jacques Cote told the Senate.
The session followed a 58-hour marathon filibuster in the House of Commons led by the opposition New Democrats. The Conservative benches erupted in cheers after MPs passed the bill Saturday night.
The government tabled the back-to-work bill last Monday after Canada Post locked out the union in the midst of rotating strikes that began early this month.
The NDP tried to stall passage of the bill, calling it unfair to the workers.
Several senators also gave the legislation a rough ride, peppering witnesses Sunday with questions about details of the bill, the longer-term implications for Canada Post and the government’s overall approach to labour issues.
Liberal Sen. Terry Mercer said the legislation amounted to “the beginning of an attack on public service unions.”
“This is contemptuous in its attitude toward a labour union of any kind,” added Progressive Conservative Sen. Lowell Murray.
Labour Minister Lisa Raitt told the senators the government acted to preserve Canada’s economy.
“This is not our first choice in how we would like to see this labour dispute resolved, but the choice is a necessary one,” she said. “Our citizens cannot afford to be left waiting.”
Asked if back-to-work legislation would become a standard Conservative approach to labour disruptions, Raitt said, “If it is a matter of national public interest, the government will intervene.”
The legislation actually provides members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers slightly lower wages than the last offer from the post office. It also limits an arbitrator to choosing between the final offers — winner take all — of the two negotiating parties on other matters.
Talks between the two sides collapsed late Wednesday, and a final half-hour discussion Saturday morning failed to close the gap.
The union says its workers will return to the job.
“The legislation provides for enormous financial penalties for individuals and union representatives in the case of defiance,” CUPW said in a statement Sunday. “We believe that this government would use any excuse to destroy the union should we defy the legislation, and we will not give them any opportunity to do so.”
George Floresco, one of the union vice-presidents, said people would remember “what Canada Post did and what the government did, and the Harper government is going to wear this for a long time to come.”
“We’re going to take an aggressive stance in the arbitration process, even though it’s a very poor way to settle issues, and we’ll be coming up for bargaining in the next four years and we’re going to prepare for that round . . . our members are determined to keep up the fight.”
Back in business
Canadians can expect to start receiving mail on Tuesday.
Post offices that were closed during the strike will also reopen.
All mailboxes will be unsealed as soon as possible and any mail that was in the system when the strike started will now be processed, Canada Post says.

[Nick Gromicko]

Awesome. The mail addressed to go to Canada was piling up here.

[Vern Mitchinson]

Canada Post is a crown Corporation. That means it is wholly owned by the /federal government but operates as an independent company or is supposed to. The Urban delivery workers have been without a contract for 8 to 10 months. The union decided to do rotating strikes that was designed to pressure the corporation to negotiate. Canada Post then locked the workers out. The next day the government introduced back to work legislation. This made it's way through the commons and the senate and the post office will be in full operation by Wednesday. June 29.

The speed with which this was done leads one to believe that it was a set up between Canada Post and Harper.

[Douglas Cossar]

We got mail today!
Cheers

[ctasker]

It`s 2 PM, June 28th, Calgary Alberta, just got a weeks mail delivered by Canada Post.

[George A. H. Luck]

It is 10: AM here in metropolitan Lansdowne Ontario and I just got my weeks worth of mail delivered by rural delivery. Three pieces. Two bills and a flier from Princess Auto which was a week out of date.

Who needs Canada Post.

[Scott May]

Thats funny George! The Americans who read this will be asking if Princess Auto is some kind of gay auto parts dealer!!!

[Kathleen Luuk]

I got a days worth of mail yesterday, including the typical three times as many flyers than mail bits. Urghh!!!
No sign of mail today other than two posties plodding their way around the next street.
I am awaiting mail from Nick, and heaven help me but mail from England that got sent even after I had warned the sister that we had a mail strike. That may be a nice christmas present, if it ever gets here.

[Vern Mitchinson]

In Canada all mail goes air mail. Mail from the UK is by boat unless they pay extra for Air mail.
In spite of all the B*t*h*ng about Canada Post no one else can deliver a letter across Canada for the price and speed that Canada Post can. Also I have never had a piece of mail go missing in Canada but I've had mail disappear when it goes out of country.

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

Canada Post stops accepting mail from corporate clients

Published On Thu Jul 7 2011

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Lesley Ciarula Taylor Staff Reporter





Canada Post shut down collection for corporate clients Thursday in its struggle to deal with a mountain of backlogged mail.
“Due to the backlog caused by the recent work disruption, we are unable to accept certain types of mail in the Greater Toronto Area today,” spokeswoman Anick Losier told the Star.
“We simply do not have the space available to induct the mail as we need to process what is currently in the plant and holding areas.
“This situation is temporary and we review this difficult decision daily.”
The “large volume mailers” were told to hang on to Thursday’s letters and parcels until further notice.
The logjam came just as Canada Post has started allowing some overtime for letter carriers to get 40 million backlogged letters to mailboxes.
The union said it could clear the undelivered mail faster if members would work longer hours.
“Last week we weren’t offering overtime. We wanted to get a sense of what we had in our system,” Losier said.
“We’ve had an influx in the last few days of people who had been waiting to mail letters and parcels.”
Sorting machines are running 24 hours a day at plants across the country, and processing has added 9 million pieces a day to the regular 18 million, she said.
But some letter carriers are still being told to stop delivery after eight hours, before they’ve finished their routes, Irwin Nanda, national director for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Metro Toronto region, told the Star.
“Today, they’re offering some overtime but not to everyone,” he said.
“The solution would be to let all carriers finish their routes every day.”
A $200-million loss during rotating strikes and a 14-day lockout in June means Canada Post has to watch spending on overtime, Losier said. Plus the corporation has lost $35 million to $40 million in delivery contracts.
“It’s a fine line we’re walking.”
Nanda responded: “They’re talking out of both sides of their mouth. They locked us out. We always wanted to deliver the mail. We still do, but carriers are frustrated that they’re not able to.”
Carriers are also “being forced to deliver out-of-date flyers rather than bills and cheques, setting themselves up to be blamed by an angry public,” CUPW alleged in a release.
Losier denied the charge, saying machine-sorted letters remain a priority, although even outdated flyers already in piles at stations still have to be delivered.
The backlog should be cleared by the end of next week, Losier said. Nanda contended all the mail could have reached people by the end of this week with overtime at sorting plants and on delivery routes

[bjones5]

I just got a letter today, from Belleville On, dated and sent July 19. 2010

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

I guess it was stuck in the Bag at the back of the wagon .

[bjones5]

was truly stuck somewhere