Mail in Canada was trapped for weeks late last year due to a postal strike, and sellers fear the same could happen this month as Canada Post and CUPW remain far apart regarding the collective bargaining dispute that was the cause of the November stoppage.
On Friday, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers provided an update that said a strike or lockout could be possible after May 22nd.
eBay had warned Canadian sellers on May 1st of a possible work stoppage and said it was “strongly recommending sellers take proactive steps.” Among its recommendations: “offer alternatives to Canada Post on your listing.” But it also affects sellers in every country shipping to Canadian buyers.
Some eBay sellers in Canada said in a discussion board post that they were taking the drastic action of suspending their listings. “How’s everybody preparing? I went quite cautiously, and decided to take time away as of today,” one seller posted. Another wrote, “I put myself on time away as of May 12/25. Last strike I had several stuck in the mail and didn’t want to take any chances this time. I am hoping this gets resolved quickly as I had my best month last month in a while.”
Another seller posting in the thread said they had switched to UPS, but added a disclaimer to the top off their item descriptions. And yet another said they had stopped advertising through Promoted Listings and stopped sending Best Offers until things settled down.
“I learned my lesson last time around,” wrote a seller – “31 sales over the strike resulted in 14 item not received refunds. I’ll be pausing all sales this time until the strike is over. It’s just not worth it.”
Canadian seller and ecommerce consultant Cindy Baldassi wrote a post on Thursday describing alternatives to Canada Post. “Fortunately, there are many established options out there, including several services that will truck packages across the American border to ship via the United States Postal Service, incoming and outgoing,” she wrote.
And in a post on BlueSky where she linked to her list, Baldassi (CindyLouWho2) wrote, “Based on previous experience, I’d stop mailing within Canada now.”