eBay

musicyouneed · ‎09-27-2025

Take out your crystal ball regarding Canada Post. What do you think is going to happen? Are the postal workers going to be on strike till Christmas? Canada Post has 45 days to produce a plan re the proposed changes, are the postal workers going to stay out till then or longer?

I am hoping that by mid month Oct the government orders them back to work with arbitration. I am hoping that the government says that Canada Post has to work within it's budget and that they are not going to be bailed out by the tax payer. They need to cut about 20% of their workforce. Canada post workers are not going to like that one bit. It is going to get ugly.

What does your crystal ball say?

marnotom! · ‎10-05-2025

@movie_galaxy wrote:

The strike would end tomorrow if Canada Post management offered Posties pay increases that matched the true rate of inflation - 5%.

The government can't do that though, because it would force them to give every other government worker and every pensioner and every social security recipient the same 5% inflation adjustment every year, plus all the government's borrowing costs would rise higher than 5%, which would be a massive problem on it's own.

This problem is unsolvable. The posties pay increases are below inflation and the government can't afford to give them an increase that would match inflation, so the problem will never be solved.

As @byto253 pointed out a few posts back, it's not that cut and dried. There's more that's being negotiated here than wage increases and settling the wage issue isn't likely going to get anybody back to work while everything else is being negotiated.

Also, the union isn't negotiating with the government; it's negotiating with Canada Post Corporation. However, the Corporation does seem to be relying more and more on the government to get its share of the mess cleaned up. Still, I don't think whatever gets negotiated with CUPW necessarily sets a precidence for negotiations with other unions in the public sector.

musicyouneed · ‎10-05-2025

If they don't do home delivery, dogs will not be an issue.

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎10-05-2025

@musicyouneed wrote:
If they don't do home delivery, dogs will not be an issue.

I'm sure if there's a loose dog they will skip that house (at least they do in the US). I'm afraid of dogs, I would not want to go door to door. Driving to a big mailbox setup to deliver seems like a pretty good gig if you don't mind being outside in all weather.

C.

rdemaree · ‎10-06-2025

nailed it! My entire adult life I have managed on 35K or less. Even 20K or less. Now that im self employed full time since 2020 its even more rocky and nobody coming to save me amidst trump turmoil, inflation, Canada Post strikes etc. Just keep on trucking

I think its unpatriotic what the postal union is doing right now in the middle of a trade war this close to the holidays. Me and many others like me will never have their salary/ benefits and rely on the post office for business and theyre kicking sand in small business faces from my point of view.

Luckily I have chitchats for USA but id still like to use canada post for Canada and international customers

marnotom! · ‎10-06-2025

@rdemaree wrote:

I think its unpatriotic what the postal union is doing right now in the middle of a trade war this close to the holidays.

What I think is more unpatriotic is faciliating a "race to the bottom," where workers are replaced by robots or by gig workers who don't know any better and get paid less and receive no benefits. Remember, this strike is actually a continuation of the one from last year that got suspended, and that strike started when the Trump Tariffs hadn't really kicked in. I think a more patriotic sentiment is working to ensure that everybody gets lifted up, rather than pushed to the curb. I'm impressed that you've been able to make a go of it with the earnings that you have, but after taking off 20% for various deductions, $35K a year doesn't go very far in 2025 if you're a single parent trying to make rent, buy food and sundries, and pay the various expenses associated with owning a car (often a necessity in smaller centres where public transit isn't great), amongst other things.

Public service pay tends to have an impact on how much private sector employers are willing to pay their workers, and a fairly paid public service also means more money for businesses who have those workers as customers.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-06-2025

@recped wrote:
@femmefan1946 wrote:
From my viewpoint as a user of the postal system, I fear the loss of Canada Post.
One reason is that I have a shipment ready to go to Czechia which would cost me under $30 with Canada Post but over $200 with UPS.
The cost -efficiency of private carriers is just not there.
It's would be like trading our medicare system for the American wormbucket.
It's "not there" when you use one of the most expensive services instead of the many alternative service you could choose that would range from less than Canada Post to sliightly more than Canada Post.

I can ship your theoretical $30 Canada Post shipment to Czechia for $20 (or less) not the ridiculous $200 UPS charge that you cherry picked to "prove" your assertion.

I did a comparison recently for Calgary to E. Ont...1 kg package. Approx 20.00 by CP. 85.00 by puro counter rate. As for shipping internationally with UPS or Fedex which should give us discounted rates (ebay Labels) for Intl shipments, it is currently giving us Bo Diddley for alternate options. Makes it extremely difficult.....As per eBay's "implied suggestions" to ship with an alternate method when that is going on. This has been pointed out to eBay but falls on deaf ears...similar to that inaccurate banner US buyers see regarding tariffs.

rdemaree · ‎10-06-2025

I meant 35K profit after taxes etc. I don’t even make that right now tbh. I don’t have a car or dependents etc and live where public transit is great so those things help I guess my point is 50k is actually a decent annual salary especially if it includes benefits. There are plenty of jobs out there that are harder for less pay and no benefits and I’ve worked them.

It’s just such a shame that people who are basically making the avg Canadian salary + benefits on top of that are holding the country hostage during a trade war. I feel especially bad for small businesses who don’t have access to things like chitchats or stallion.

marnotom! · ‎10-06-2025

A wage increase below the rate of inflation is effectively a pay cut, sets a bad example for the private sector and has a ripple effect. I don’t think most eBay sellers want the Canadian buying pool to lose discretionary income or spending power. $50K a year (before deductions) may be an okay amount of pay for a single person with limited expenses, but it’s not enough for a family to live on.

And I’ve looked at some of the benefits Canada Post frontline employees get. While it’s great that the employer contributes as much as it does to them compared to most other employers, the sad fact of the matter is that they’re pretty terrible. For example, if you’re hearing impaired (like me), expect to get less than half a hearing aid covered under extended medical.

And then there’s the whole issue of working conditions and treatment by management. If CUPW employees were content in their jobs and respected by management, I doubt they’d be striking over wages and benefits.

rdemaree · ‎10-07-2025

The Post office is going under and has to change something. From what I gather the union is mostly upset because Canada Post's proposal to reverse their losses is to downsize the company which would result in job losses but it appears as if they have to do something like that to stay viable. Maintaining the current losses + increasing wages when theyre already deep in the red sounds like unicorn thinking.

We already have nationalized healthcare here in Canada and it appears we are in the early stages of including dental/ vision/ pharmacare etc. in the near future incrementally so most people in theory wont need to worry about anything medical related. Housing costs and availability can be fixed with building more affordable housing, very strict laws on investment properties and keeping laws on the books heavily in favor of tenants and first time home buyers over foreign investors and corporate landlords and match immigration with availability of housing. For groceries and similar essentials punish price gouging.

Once you have healthcare, housing, and grocery costs reigned in and maximally available to people everything else is more or less a luxury or some sort of optional expense. But you need healthcare, housing and food to survive.

reallynicestamps · ‎10-07-2025

@visual-sound

When I worked for Ottawa Home Care the nurses were looking for pay equity with-- police detectives.

Because they were nearly twice as likely to be injured on the job and four times as likely to be attacked.

They also needed a university degree rather than Grade 12.

When I worked for the RCMP, most of the problems our medical section handled were hearing (followed by mental health).

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-07-2025

@musicyouneed wrote:
If they don't do home delivery, dogs will not be an issue.

One of the other down sides of cancelling home delivery would be the day to day contact posties have/had with seniors that weren't able to get out on a regular basis. I realize not part of their job so consider it a valued added for safety sakes service. As for those community mail boxes for the years of dealing with them in Calgary they can be incredibly difficult to navigate in the winter for both user and carrier unless you can still skate like Kurt Browning. Not everyone can.

regs43 · ‎10-07-2025

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
@musicyouneed wrote:
If they don't do home delivery, dogs will not be an issue.
One of the other down sides of cancelling home delivery would be the day to day contact posties have/had with seniors that weren't able to get out on a regular basis. I realize not part of their job so consider it a valued added for safety sakes service. As for those community mail boxes for the years of dealing with them in Calgary they can be incredibly difficult to navigate in the winter for both user and carrier unless you can still skate like Kurt Browning. Not everyone can.

Canada Post could contract in a snow plow company with some de ice stuff to maintain the area(s) in theory, if they cared lol.

john_koenig99 · ‎10-07-2025

In true CUPW fashion, CP's offer got REJECTED! So...Back to endless weeks of strike. Bleeding even more money and losing more business. Boy, it sure feels fun being hijacked by a bunch of....well, can't say it without getting censored.

PS. When Carney is back from DC, can he finally push parliament and pass the darn back to work legislation for those people?

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎10-07-2025

@john_koenig99 wrote:
In true CUPW fashion, CP's offer got REJECTED! So...Back to endless weeks of strike. Bleeding even more money and losing more business. Boy, it sure feels fun being hijacked by a bunch of....well, can't say it without getting censored.

PS. When Carney is back from DC, can he finally push parliament and pass the darn back to work legislation for those people?

Oh I hope so. It's not characteristic of me to say harsh things about others, but I think the Union is greedy and selfish and I'm getting tired of them holding my business hostage. (Note, I said the "union", not speaking about specific postal workers).

And Shoppers Drug Mart is tired of the striking as well. They're working for minimum wage and don't get why there's such a fuss by people doing the same job complaining about their paycheck when they get what, double minimum wage or there abouts? I was a postmaster in 2004 and earned 10.35 an hour while the postmaster at the post office was doing more than double, and it was the same darned job! I got annoyed enough I quit. Wasn't getting paid enough to take all the abuse by customers who were mad at Canada Post about their mail deliveries, packages being carded, mail being delayed, strikes, etc, etc, etc.

Anyway at my job, in the past 10 years I"ve worked with three people who had advanced degrees (one person had a law degree, two others had masters degrees in the arts, not exactly something useful for a job at a financial firm), and these people were making under 40K a year, had big student loans, and told me all their friends from school were working at Starbucks and living with their parents because they couldn't afford a student loan and rent in the same paycheck.

One of my coworkers a recent university grad said she felt fortunate to find a real job in an office and not have to be making fast food for a living. People at my work don't get paid as much as posties do, but they appreciate having a nice place to work. So it annoys me that a union with a cushy deal is complaining about what they have. Considering you only need high school to deliver mail so they don't have student loans, I'd think that's a pretty good gig considering no education is required.

C.

reallynicestamps · ‎10-07-2025

So your response to being underpaid is to criticize the guy who is getting paid well for the same job instead of the guy who is underpaying you?

Okay.

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎10-08-2025

@reallynicestamps wrote:
So your response to being underpaid is to criticize the guy who is getting paid well for the same job instead of the guy who is underpaying you?
Okay.

That wasn't the impression I was trying to give... I wanted to be paid more for doing the same job. I understood that the 7-Eleven would never pay as much as Canada Post for the postmaster job, I didn't think getting minimum wage was exactly fair.

On another note, not only did they not pay me fairly, they denied me breaks, I called the labour board to complain, they told me it's my job to enforce the labour laws as an employee at the store, and their (7-Eleven's) solution was to change me to part time 5 hours shifts so I wouldn't be entitled to have the half hour lunch break that they denied me on the 8 hour shift. I resolved the problem by asking my customers if they knew anyone was hiring and taking the first job to get me out of that store.

C.

musicyouneed · ‎10-08-2025

I was on a Facebook group and they don't think that any thing will happen until mid November or later. I know that union was meeting with the minister responsible tonight. They want the government postion reversed, like that is going to happen. Union members are losing about $1000 a week so over 6 weeks each member would lose $6,000 going into Christmas. I am not very happy with the union right now. Another Christmas ruined for sales. I will be extending my time away until the 18th.

On another note several competitors in my area are selling CD's like crazy (regular CD prices) with really cheap shipping or free by letter mail. They are not on time away. Do they know something I don't?

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-08-2025

@musicyouneed wrote:
I was on a Facebook group and they don't think that any thing will happen until mid November or later. I know that union was meeting with the minister responsible tonight. They want the government postion reversed, like that is going to happen. Union members are losing about $1000 a week so over 6 weeks each member would lose $6,000 going into Christmas. I am not very happy with the union right now. Another Christmas ruined for sales. I will be extending my time away until the 18th.

On another note several competitors in my area are selling CD's like crazy (regular CD prices) with really cheap shipping or free by letter mail. They are not on time away. Do they know something I don't?

@musicyouneed

Did they up their handling time? Possibly they are marking shipped and advising buyers shipment will happen when strike is resolved. Majority of buyers are understanding when they are kept in loop. I've upped my handling but see delivery by mid november. Who knows what math ebay is using?

musicyouneed · ‎10-09-2025

3 day handling time. CD is $10 with free shipping.

This is one of the competitors:

Shipping

Canada Post Lettermail

Estimated between Wed, Nov 5 and Wed, Nov 12 to V7M1G3

Shipping: Free shipping

Location

BC, Canada

Ships to

Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe

Excludes

Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan Republic, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Brazil, Brunei ... Show more

Handling time

Will usually ship within 3 business days of receiving cleared payment. Learn more

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-09-2025

@musicyouneed wrote:
3 day handling time. CD is $10 with free shipping.
This is one of the competitors:

Shipping
Canada Post Lettermail
Estimated between Wed, Nov 5 and Wed, Nov 12 to V7M1G3
Shipping: Free shipping
Location
BC, Canada
Ships to
Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe
Excludes
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan Republic, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Brazil, Brunei ... Show more
Handling time
Will usually ship within 3 business days of receiving cleared payment. Learn more

@musicyouneed

I just used bulk edit to my listings and upped handling time. It "appeared" ebay automagically upped handling when strike was announced. I have heard other reports where a seller sold something and ebay was saying ship immediately so it could have been a timing thing. Personally will just downgrade handling once everything gets worked out.

According to an eBay post when strike was announced they stated they would be protecting sellers for lates. Who knows if that will only be for tracked services vs letter/misc methods?