Calgary businesses react to Canada Post strike
Roughly 55,000 postal workers around the country went on strike Thursday night
Calgary businesses are reacting to the Canada Post strike, voicing their opinions and frustrations about how the work stoppage affects their bottom line.
Roughly 55,000 Canada Post workers across the country went on strike late Thursday night. A year of bargaining between the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and Canada Post has resulted in little progress.
The strike comes ahead of a very busy season for Canada Post, with Black Friday later this month and the holiday season on the horizon. During the strike, mail and parcels won't be processed or delivered, and some post offices will be closed. Service guarantees will also be affected for items already in the postal network.
Both sides of the strike have agreed to continue delivering benefit cheques, like pensions, seniors and child benefits, and old age security, during the strike.
Ceramicist Mariko Paterson is one Calgary business owner who will be affected by the strike. She runs Forage Studios, which often ships its work to customers.
Paterson said she hopes the strike doesn't last too long. She is supportive of the striking workers and expects her customers will be reasonable about delays caused by the strike.
"I'm okay absorbing as much as I can on the customers' behalf," Paterson said.
But not all businesses are as patient for the strike to end.
Jennifer Leblond, owner and founder of Steeling Home, said her business offers free shipping on orders over a certain amount and relies on Canada Post to ship goods to customers in remote communities. Without the postal service, she said her business will have to absorb the cost of using another courier.
"We'll be taking that on the nose," she said.
"Canada Post isn't doing themselves any favours. They're not garnering a lot of support from me, and from the public that use them."
Leblond said the timing of the strike couldn't be worse, with the holiday season starting to ramp up.
"We're going to pay the price.... So it feels unfair and frankly, at this point, it's disappointing," she said.
Connor Curran, co-founder and CEO of Local Laundry, said the Canada Post strike is making him feel anxious about the future of his business.
"This is the last thing I need," he said. "We have so many other things going on right now. Rising costs, inflation, consumer spending is at an all-time low. This is just one thing that we do not need right now."
Curran said Canada Post handles 30 to 40 per cent of his business's packages, and the weeks leading up to the holidays are when Local Laundry makes most of its money.
"Canada Post has consistently been the best rate for us as a business, and for our consumers as well. So this just means that we have to change to more expensive carriers," he said. "Shipping costs can double, sometimes triple in certain cases."
The Calgary Dream Centre, a local charity, said it relies heavily on mail-in donations around this time of year to fund its programs, and the strike will have devastating impacts.
"Our outreach, meals, counselling, and other life-changing services are all at risk if we don't receive the donations we usually get by mail this time of year," said Rachel From, manager of development and communication at the Calgary Dream Centre.
The charity added that, without mail delivery, it is facing the risk of a funding shortfall.
The Alberta government said Friday it is implementing a contingency mail delivery plan, which, beginning Tuesday, Nov. 19, will ensure critical mail reaches its destination.
The province defines critical mail as material that must reach its intended recipient to avoid health, safety, financial or other significant harm to Albertans, significant risk or loss to government, or legislative non-compliance.
The City of Calgary said on Friday that it is working with an external courier service to ensure critical materials still reach their destination. Otherwise, the city is directing Calgarians to make payments online.
Wycliffe Oduor, CUPW Calgary Local 710 president, said postal workers had been hoping to come to an agreement with Canada Post before the holiday season, but he added that workers are hopeful the two sides will settle the work stoppage soon.
"The members have been waiting and they're hoping that this will send a strong message to Canada Post to come back to the table, negotiate a contract, because that is all we want," Oduor said on Friday.
"During the pandemic, we were called heroes, and it seems like we are being treated as zeroes right now."
Hossein Piri, assistant professor of operations and supply chain management at the University of Calgary's Haskayne School of Business, told CBC News that the Canada Post strike will have far-reaching impacts.
He said the postal delivery service is critical for small businesses and rural communities, not only in southern Alberta, but for the country at large.
"It's oftentimes the only option for delivering goods and services in remote areas where private couriers — they either don't operate, or if they do, they charge very high rates," Piri said.
According to Canada Post, in 2022 it delivered 6.6 billion pieces of mail, parcels and messages.
On Thursday, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) called on the federal government to use all its powers, including binding arbitration or back-to-work legislation, to end the strike. The CFIB noted that 79 per cent of small businesses in Canada rely on Canada Post.
The strike is the third in less than 15 years for postal workers. They also hit the picket line in 2018 and 2011, with back-to-work legislation introduced both times to end the work stoppages. The legislation in 2011 was later ruled by the courts to have violated the workers' right to freedom of association and expression.
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon told reporters on Friday morning that the federal government has no plans right now to introduce such legislation for this strike. The statement came after MacKinnon recently sent labour disputes at Quebec and British Columbia ports to binding arbitration and ordered people back to work.
Workers with the Canadian courier Purolator won't handle any packages postmarked or identified as originating from Canada Post, Teamsters Canada has said, as an act of solidarity with striking workers.
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With files from Colleen Underwood and Jo Horwood