A national postal strike leading up to the holiday season will impact Canadian shoppers and retailers alike, but the repercussions will be particularly severe for small business owners, advocates say.
While the union’s national executive board has yet to decide if job action will occur once the deadline expires, business advocacy groups are urging their members to be ready for a potential mail stoppage.
Retail Council of Canada VP of marketing Santo Ligotti said such a strike would be felt most keenly by small retailers and business owners.
“Any large retailer could look toward an alternative mailing company, and some could absorb the cost, but a small retailer couldn’t make that work, given the cost for the delivery versus the actual profit margin they’re making,” Ligotti told The Epoch Times.
The potential strike couldn’t come at a worse time of year for business owners, Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) vice-president of national affairs Jasmin Guénette said.
“With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas shopping, this is a very important time of year for businesses,” Guénette said in an interview.
An increasing number of consumers are Christmas shopping online, especially since the pandemic, he said. A CFIB survey of its members found that anywhere from 25 to 40 percent of small businesses’ annual sales are made during the holiday season.
Retail Council of Canada members have also identified November as the busiest shopping month for online purchases, Ligotti said, with many Canadians shopping from the end of October until those last few days before Dec. 24.
While small businesses will bear the brunt of financial repercussions for a long postal strike, Canadian shoppers will also be impacted, Ligotti said.
Past Precedent
CUPW members had previously enacted a series of rotating strikes in several major cities across Canada in October 2018 after negotiations with Canada Post were unsuccessful.The workers began a country-wide strike the following month, but the Liberal government passed Bill C-89 on Nov. 22, 2018, mandating the postal workers return to work after three days.
The CFIB surveyed its members after the strike to determine its impact. Sixty-one percent of the small businesses polled reported that they were negatively impacted, Guénette said.
“Some of the challenges were related to cash flow because of the delayed invoices and cheques being late,” he said. “It doesn’t take long before businesses have to find an alternative solution.”
While many businesses can’t afford to look for alternative shipping solutions, there are still a few steps they can take to try to mitigate the effects of a strike.
Ligotti said small retailers should entice consumers to shop in store by offering incentives and encourage online shoppers to pick up orders rather than having them shipped.
“Canadians love to shop local, and shopping local does mean in-person for a majority of these small businesses,” he said, adding that small stores can also take advantage of their local business improvement area (BIA) events by being part of Christmas tours and events.
Guénette said small retailers should also advertise the advantages of shopping locally because it not only offers a more personal experience, but it benefits the community as a whole.
“We did a study not too long ago showing that for every dollar spent at a local shop, 66 cents stays within the community, as opposed to only 11 cents when people buy at large companies like Walmart,” he said. “Advertising the economic benefits and the customer service that consumers have when they visit a local local retailer is always a good idea.”
Both Ligotti and Guénette said they are hopeful the federal government will intervene to prevent a long strike, like it did with strikes at ports in both British Columbia and Montreal.
“This labour situation is creating uncertainty for small businesses,” Guénette said. “We will call on the government to use back to work legislation to keep the postal system working if the negotiations between the union and the employer are not successful.”
