About 500 pairs of underwear were in Tyler McCombs’ mail.
Packages are stuck in Canada Post’s delivery network after a nationwide strike (now going on for two weeks) has shut down the postal system.
“I feel like I’m a pawn in a big battle right now,” said the owner of Devon & Lang, a small underwear company in Calgary that does most of its sales online.
“It’s really terrible that they chose Black Friday and the holiday season to make this fight public. This isn’t just hurting Canada Post. It’s hurting all Canadians. “And it’s hurting me and a lot of small businesses,” he said.
Retailers across Canada are scrambling to find different shipping companies to ship their orders during the busiest shopping time of the year.
However, especially for small and medium-sized businesses, using a different courier can often be expensive. Currently, McCombs’ company charges an additional fee to ship a pair of underwear, ranging from 50 cents to $12, depending on where you live.
“If we did that, we would wipe out all our profit margins, so unfortunately we would have to increase our shipping rates.”
Canada Post’s busiest season, with 2 million deliveries made each day
Canada Post spokesman John Hamilton said the week after Black Friday is always Crown’s busiest, with about two million packages delivered each day.
“It’s devastating for businesses to be sidelined during the busiest shopping period of the year, but it’s devastating for our employees and the many people who rely on us,” Hamilton said in an email to CBC News. “It’s incredibly difficult for everyone.”
“We are fully committed to negotiations to reach a new agreement, but being closed at this time of year means the Christmas rush has gone elsewhere.”
- Have you had trouble getting a travel package because of the Canada Post strike? What are you doing instead? Please send an email to ask@cbc.ca.
More than 55,000 members of the Canadian Postal Union went on strike on November 15 after a year of failed negotiations for a new collective agreement. Specifically, the union is demanding a 22 per cent pay increase over four years, but Canada Post has offered half that amount.
Peter Denley, CUPW national director for the Central Region, said workers would rather deliver holiday gifts than go on strike.
“This is not what we wanted to do,” he told a rally in Ottawa on Thursday.
“The fact is Canada Post has watched market share and parcels decline for five years and never once came to the union for a solution,” Denley said. “Now they are coming to the table demanding concessions and a major financial crisis.”
Canada Post has struggled to compete in the growing parcel delivery market, losing more than $3 billion since 2018. The company has warned that it could run out of operating funds by this spring.
Postal carriers are required by law to deliver to all addresses in Canada and are not funded by taxpayers. Instead, they are expected to become self-sustaining through the sale of their services.
Additional shipping costs may be passed on to consumers
Santo Ligotti of the Retail Council of Canada said customers could see higher prices for online purchases during the holiday season as sellers cover additional shipping costs.
“That cost could be added to the final bill,” he said.
Parcels could also be delayed as Canada Post’s competitors try to meet increased demand, he said.
“Retailers are telling us that alternatives are being maxed out, given that retailers are accepting all additional package deliveries from Canada Post,” Ligotti said.
McCombs said that until the strike, his company exclusively used Canada Post to ship underwear orders. But he doesn’t do that anymore unless he has to.
“I’m tired of having to deal with all this uncertainty,” McCombs said.
“As a company, you need to know for sure if you can ship your product and get it to your customers,” he said.
“Canada Post was easy, but it’s not easy anymore.”
No end in sight for the attack
Unions have accused Canada Post of trying to hire more part-time workers and refusing to raise wages to keep pace with inflation. The Crown corporation also says it is firing striking workers.
Canada Post, meanwhile, said it could not afford to pay what CUPW was demanding and accused the negotiations of stalling.
Negotiations between Canada Post and the Canadian Postal Workers Union have broken down for the first time since the nationwide strike began. A special mediator appointed by the federal government determined that “the parties are too far apart on key issues for mediation to be successful at this time,” Labor Secretary Stephen McKinnon wrote.
on wednesday, A federally appointed mediator suspended negotiations. It was the first time since the strike began that the two sides were too far apart to make negotiations productive.
Labor Minister Stephen McKinnon said there was no end to the conflict unless an agreement was reached.
