Sellers shipping to Canada and all Canadian-based sellers can breathe a sigh of relief after a summer of uncertainty when it comes to package delivery. But while new developments in the labor dispute with Canada Post will take sellers through the holiday shopping season and through next year, it seems the contentious labor issues will return with a vengeance before too long.
Canada Post reached tentative short-term agreements this week with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) – once ratified, they’re for a period of two years rather than the typical four-year contracts. The company issued an announcement stating in part:
“The agreements will avert a work disruption, bringing much-needed certainty in the postal system for our employees and customers. Canadians can now use the postal system with confidence. This is especially important as Canadian businesses large and small are already planning for the upcoming holiday shipping season.”
The union issued an announcement of its own, pointing out that it would be returning to the bargaining table next year, stating that many of its issues remain unresolved and describing much work that was left to be done.
In fact, the CUPW warned its union members to “start putting money aside and preparing for the struggle ahead,” and warning, “The next year and a half will decide the future of the post office for decades.”
eBay was impacted in June when word got out that Canada Post had warned large customers to prepare for a possible disruption. On Wednesday, it updated its sellers and urged them to resume selling if they had paused their activities. “Sellers who have put their stores on vacation, or who have zeroed out inventory, are strongly encouraged to return to business as usual,” it wrote on the eBay Canada announcement boad.
Likewise, Etsy updated its sellers, advising them in a post on its announcement board that as a result of the tentative agreement, “you should now feel comfortable shipping orders as you did before the dispute started.”
