The USPS suspended delivery of mail and packages to Canada on November 29, 2024, due to an ongoing labor strike by Canadian postal workers, which EcommerceBytes reported on Wednesday. Today, the USPS said some packages already received but stuck in transit will be returned to senders, who are entitled to a full refund when service to the country of destination is suspended.
A postal advisory on Friday noted the following:
“For already deposited items, Postal Service International Service Center (ISC) employees will endorse the items as “Mail Service Suspended — Return to Sender” and then place them in the mail stream for return.
“According to DMM 604.9.2.3, customers are entitled to a full refund of their postage costs when service to the country of destination is suspended.
“The detailed procedures to obtain refunds for Retail Postage, eVS, PC Postage, and BMEU entered mail can be found through the following link: https://postalpro.usps.com/international-refunds
The USPS has five International Service Centers (New York, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) which “distribute and dispatch international mail received from a designated service area to specific foreign countries or to gateway exchange offices.”
“The IPC is an association of 24 postal operators in Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific region. IPC provides its members with systems and programs that ensure efficient and competitive delivery of international mail,” according to the US Postal Service website.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers began a national strike on November 15, visit canadapost.ca/negotiations for updates on postal service disruptions in Canada. Today (November 29), the Union filed an Unfair Labour Practice complaint against Canada Post for laying off workers exercising their right to strike, and said on the CUPW.ca website that “Canada Post did not consult the Union before laying off our members and is refusing to provide essential information to the union in terms of the number of lay offs, when they happened and how employees were selected for these lay offs.”
