‘Scrambling’: Small businesses anxious about possible Canada Post strike

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The manager of an Alberta clothing store says small businesses like hers are feeling anxious as the threat of another work stoppage continues to hang over Canada Post.

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

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

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“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.”

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The Canadian Union of Postal Workers was to be in a legal strike position Friday. But it said late Thursday that it was calling for a countrywide halt to overtime work as negotiators continued to review the latest offers from Canada Post.

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Lisa Liu, a spokesperson for Canada Post, said the two sides met on Thursday evening but there wasn’t “meaningful progress.”

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If workers do walk out, it would be the second work stoppage within a year. A strike in November saw operations shut down until just before Christmas.

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

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

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“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.”

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

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

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Catharine Eckersley owns an occupational therapy business and prescribes and assists in ordering 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.

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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“There are other delivery methods available. But unfortunately those typically take longer.”

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

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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.

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

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