Small businesses react to rotating postal strike announced by union

Canada Post workers are set to have mail and parcel delivery resume as soon as possible after switching to rotating strikes.

As Canada Post workers begin rotating in and out of service this weekend, small businesses who rely on the courier are hoping the intermittent mail delivery will be enough to get them back on their feet.

Nirali Patel opened her Saskatoon business, Revitalize Physiotherapy & Rehab, in August. A huge part of her marketing campaign centred around promotional flyers that she wanted to mail to community members in the fall using Canada Post.

“This was really vital for us,” Patel said, adding she spent 50 per cent of her marketing budget on the flyers. “We don’t have a lot of connections around, so we wanted to really stand out.”

One week before she planned to mail the flyers out, the union representing postal workers announced the nationwide strike after the federal government laid out its changes to the courier’s business model.

Since then, Patel has been stuck with 10,000 flyers stacked in boxes and said the clock is ticking to get them delivered. The flyers have a promotional offer that can be redeemed when brought into the clinic, but an expiration date of Nov. 8 is written on each of them.

Patel considered using an alternate courier service, but she said the costs were too much. She’s hoping at least some of them will get into mailboxes before the promotion expires.

“If they do deliver those, that would be fantastic for me. It would be a huge help and will also help me with my stress that I’m right now dealing with,” she said.

‘Massive relief’

Hearing the postal union announce the end of the nationwide strike was a “massive relief” for Monique Poisson-Fast, who runs Stardust Artwork, a small home-based business in Saskatoon.

They make and sell jewelry, prints and stickers, often shipping the small, flat items to customers through Canada Post at a low cost.

“It gets shipped with letter mail and no one is going to pay $15 or $20 for courier shipping for a $5 sticker,” they said. “Canada Post is really my only option.”

Poisson-Fast paused all shipping on their website due to the strike, which they said resulted in a decrease in orders from customers outside of the city.

“My summer student position had just finished a week before the strike, and so I was gearing up for this to become my primary source of income again,” Poisson-Fast explained. “Then the strike happened, which creates instability for sure.”

They are hopeful the shift in job action will have less of an impact on small businesses and allow them to work with a little more certainty.

However, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) questioned how much relief a rotating strike will offer small business owners.

“This kind of strike could increase uncertainty,” Jasmin Guenette, VP of National Affairs with CFIB, told CTV News.

According to Guenette the current strike “has been costly for a lot of small firms,” impacting sales and cash flow. He said not knowing when and where rotating strikes will take place only adds to the uncertainty.

While the limited resumption of mail delivery will help small businesses, he said it will also mean continued backlogs, delayed deliveries and frustrated customers.

“It’s a baby step, I would say, in the right direction, but it’s not what is needed,” he said. “What is needed is a full stop to strike activities.”

In a news release, Canada Post welcomed back its employees, but said rotating strikes challenge the company’s ability to provide reliable service. As a result, all service guarantees will be suspended.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers will begin its rotating strikes on Saturday morning. Local branches will be told when it’s their turn to rotate out of service closer to that time.