Small businesses anxious about possible Canada Post strike

People walk past the Canada Post facility in Mississauga, Ont., on Thursday, May 22, 2025. Canada Post could go on strike Friday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

The manager of an Alberta clothing store says small businesses like hers are feeling anxious as a strike deadline nears for thousands of Canada Post workers.

Erin Primrose has been frantically preparing to send out shipments from Thelma & Thistle in Lethbridge using alternative delivery services.

“We’re scrambling for sure,” she said in an interview Thursday.

“It’s stressful. We want to make sure we’re making the right choices for our customers, honouring them and not gouging them. Because that doesn’t feel right at all.”

About 55,000 members of the Canadian Union Of Postal Workers are set to go on strike shortly after midnight.

It would be the second postal strike within a year. The strike in November saw operations shut down until just before Christmas.

Primrose said her store’s shipping costs increased slightly during the 2024 strike, as it switched to alternative carriers.

“It was frustrating and really time consuming to kind of pivot and to learn the new systems,” she said.

“I spent hours and hours and hours on hold tracing packages, trying to place claims, sort out where items had been lost, dealing with frustrated customers.”

She hopes this time around a strike will be easier to manage.

“It is a big deal and it does affect not just businesses, but human beings across Canada,” Primrose said.

Catharine Eckersley is a small business owner who prescribes and orders medical equipment such as wound care supplies and catheters -- a tube typically used to drain urine from the body -- for clients in remote areas in Alberta.

She said the last strike forced some people, for example, to use the same needles twice or reuse catheters and delay how often they used the bathroom.

And although her clients are more prepared for a second strike and have ordered equipment in advance or in bulk, she said she can’t help but worry about them.

“There’s a lot of people out there who depend on essential medical supplies to be delivered,” said Eckersley, CEO of Valley to Peak OT Consulting Ltd.

“There are other delivery methods available. But unfortunately those typically take longer, they cost more.”

However, she said she is determined to find alternative delivery methods like she did last time if the strike goes ahead.

Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, said many business owners already struggling with uncertain times are stressed about another possible labour disruption.

“A strong wind could blow over some of these small firms right now ... they’re so desperately weak.”

Businesses were still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic when Canada Post workers walked off the job last year, he said.

“The 32-day strike cost small business owners $1 billion in additional costs over that period of time.”

Now they are also dealing with uncertainty brought on by Canada’s trade war with the United States, Kelly added.

“Not only has that created higher costs and unknown risks for small businesses, but it’s also led to a drop in consumer demand.”

The union says on its website the latest offer from the postal service of a 13 per cent wage increase over four years falls short of the 19 per cent increase workers asked for to keep pace with the rising costs of living.

It has also raised concerns about Canada Post’s pitch to include more part-time staff and introduce “dynamic routing” -- a model that could see mail delivery routes change on a daily basis to adjust to varying conditions -- without details on how it would work.

Canada Post said it’s already seeing mail volumes decline and is pushing for an urgent resolution.

“We remain hopeful that negotiations can resume,” said postal service spokesperson Lisa Liu.

With files from Craig Lord in Ottawa

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 22, 2025.

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press