Small businesses impacted as Canada Post strike in its 4th week

With less than two weeks to go before Christmas, some businesses who had previously relied on Canada Post for deliveries are feeling a major impact.

Diana Luong and Erica Castro are dealing with the strike, in part, by selling their wares at a fair. The co-owners of Craftedvan say this is one of the few ways they are currently able to sell their handmade stationery products ahead of Christmas.

“Majority of our business is actually online,” Castro said.

“We’ve had to close our Etsy shop, we’ve had to close our own online shop, and it’s the best time of the year for online sales and we’re not getting them anymore.”

While they’ve been able to continue the wholesale side of their business, it’s costing them twice as much to ship to stores in Canada and the U.S. through a private courier.

“At first we thought it wasn’t going to be that long, so we thought, ‘OK, we’ll just ship this other way, it’s more expensive, we’ll cover it, it’s not going to be a big deal,’” Castro said.

“But as it’s gone on, and on, longer and longer, we’ve seen the ramifications of it, and it’s like, do we need to find a more permanent solution for this?”

The strike began Nov. 15 when about 55,000 workers across the country walked off the job. Key issues include wages and how to staff a proposed expansion into weekend delivery.

There appears to be no end in sight for the dispute. This week, Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) criticized each other’s proposals. Mediation — paused two weeks ago because the two sides were too far apart — hasn’t resumed, and the federal government continues to resist calls to intervene.

With Dec. 25 just around the corner, the chance of a deal in time for Christmas deliveries appears unlikely.

“We’re a little frustrated we’re not back to work yet, but we’re willing to stick it out as long as we need to,” said Brian Schuck, 3rd vice-president of the CUPW.

“We’ll work as hard we can to clear any backlog in the system and whatever we can. We’d love to get back to work today with a contract that’s right and help service the Canadian public.”

Castro says while they’re hoping for an end to the strike, they support the striking workers.

“A little bit of a rock and a hard place,” she said.

“We want to champion them, we want to cheer them on to get what they want in this strike, but at the same time, every week that goes by is another week we’re unable to sell online.”

In the meantime, they’re calling on people to support small businesses like theirs by shopping in person in stores or at fairs.