General Chat

....... the Canadian posties have been on strike for the last 4 weeks, and there seems to be no sign of them settling and going back to work.

No mail is moving in or out of the country, apart from "some social cheques" to people, mainly seniors and homeless people, who can't or don't want direct deposit into bank accounts.

So, don't be surprised if you don't receive the usual Christmas mail from Canada .............. and I don't know what has happened to items mailed from overseas to here. Has the Post Office in the UK been accepting parcels and cards for Canada??

I bought my stamps for my overseas Christmas cards fairly early, - they are all the same price unlike other years so I didn't mention destinations - and nothing was said.
In due course, I wrote and posted the cards in our local box and it was only afterwards that my daughter went into a Post Office and there was a notice displayed about not accepting mail for Canada, because of the strike.
My cards will therefore be stuck in the system somewhere, either over here or at one of your mail depots. :-|

It looks like my Canadian cards will be stuck in the system too then :-(. I wonder if it will be any quicker than the Xmas card I sent to Canada in 2022 that arrived in September 2023 :-0 :-0

I posted my things to Canada just before the ban, so they are in a bag somewhere in Canada. Anything posted after the ban will be in a bag in the UK. My local postmistress commented though that things sent by "parcel force" will be delivered as it is a courier service. She also said that Christmas cards etc would probably be delivered at Easter! :-(

I am going to send my relatives Jacquie Lawson cards, so that they at least get something.

The news is somewhat better today ............ the Labour Minister this morning instructed the Industrial Labour Relations Board to order the posties back to work, and he is going to appoint an Industrial Inquiry Commission will have until May 22 to probe ways to achieve a settlement. Strike action will be paused until then and the workers will work under the existing but expired contract.

In other words, he's called a "timeout", and hopes that will help.

This seems to mean they may be back at work some time next week, though the union is far from happy! They see it as an
assault on their constitutional rights to strike" :-0 :-S :-P

It still won't help in getting Christmas mail and parcels to and from Canada in time.

I sent my cards to the UK via Moonpig as I've done for the last few years, then the strike happened. Now everyone is telling me they can't send me cards well at least this year they have an excuse :-D
Thankfully most of my online shopping seems to be on time as the couriers are working flat out.
The dog has just got used to not going mad when the mailman walks by and now it'll all start up again next week.