Canada Post strike: What’s at stake for the Canadian economy?
The Canada Post strike is set to have the sharpest impact on small businesses and customers of the postal service, particularly those living in remote and rural communities, according to experts who spoke to Global News.
A lengthy labour disruption could have disastrous implications for the future of the national postal service itself, some warn.
Saturday marks the second day in a nationwide strike of Canada Post workers represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), with no indication yet that the two parties are getting closer to a deal.
No new parcels or letters are being accepted by the carrier and mail already in the Canada Post system is stuck in limbo as the gears of the national postage system grind to a halt.
Retail analyst Bruce Winder tells Global News that Canadians are going to notice the impacts of the strike “right away.”
“This is going to be clunky, this is going to be a little messy for a while,” he says.
Customers ordering from Canadian small businesses will notice the disruption as merchants are forced to pivot away from Canada Post for parcel delivery, Winder says.
Instead, he says businesses will have to rely on couriers and other private options, “which are more expensive, so it’s going to hit their bottom line.”
“Small businesses who use Canada Post to deliver packages to customers, that’s going to be a massive hit to them,” Winder says.
The impact of the Canada Post strike is compounded by the lingering effects of shutdowns at ports in British Columbia and Quebec.
Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon stepped in this week to order binding arbitration on the parties involved to get maritime trade flowing again through Canadian ports. Workers in B.C. went back to work on Thursday, while peers
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