Nearly three weeks after the start of the strike by 55,000 unionized Canada Post employees, calls are growing louder for the federal government to end the strike which has lasted for almost three weeks.
In Calgary, the co-owner of Local Laundry, an online clothing retailer, responded to the ongoing dispute by telling Global News that it “does nothing but hurt Canadians.”
“How much longer can Canadians show understanding,” asked Connor Curran.
“It’s (this time of year) our Super Bowl. We just had Black Friday, Cyber Monday, important days of the year for us,” Curran said.
Connor Curran, owner of Calgary-based online clothing retailer Local Laundry, says the postal strike comes at the worst time of year for Canadian retailers. He asks “how much longer can Canadians understand?” “.
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“We are entirely an e-commerce company. The majority of our business is people shopping online. We don’t have a physical sales space, so people order online. This is our bread and butter, the most important moment. This is a critical time of year for us,” Curran added.
Connor Curran, co-owner of Calgary-based online clothing retailer Local Laundry, describes the ongoing postal strike as “the perfect storm” coming at the most important time of year for small businesses.
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Without shipping mail, Local Laundry has had to explore other shipping options, but not only are they much more expensive, but every other small business is doing the same, so “other carriers are facing backlogs,” Curran said, “carrying the load.” packages that do not go through Canada Post.
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Curran says there also needs to be a lot more communication with customers about the importance of receiving orders early and informing them of the status of their orders.
“So we feel it in price, we feel it in timeliness and we feel it with customer frustration,” Curran said. It’s “a perfect storm.”
And it’s not just Local Laundry that’s suffering, Curran says the charities his company supports are also suffering.
Local Laundry’s mission is to donate $1,000,000 to local charities by 2030.
For example, Curran said, for every pair of socks the company sells to a customer, it donates another pair to a shelter in need, so fewer socks sold means fewer socks for charity. .
Striking members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and their supporters held a rally in northeast Calgary on Wednesday, December 4, 2024.
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As the strike of more than 55,000 workers drags on, Canada’s business community is increasing pressure on the federal government to intervene.
The Retail Council of Canada is the latest organization to call on Ottawa to end the nearly three-week strike, saying it is putting businesses and their employees at risk.
Although the Trudeau government has so far resisted these calls, on Wednesday evening the Canadian Union of Postal Workers announced that it had sent another set of counter-proposals to a mediator appointed by the federal government.
The union said it was ready to return to federal mediation, which was suspended last week because the two sides appeared too far apart to reach an agreement.
Canada Post said it presented the union this weekend with a new framework for reaching agreements.
Key issues in the dispute include wages and the extension of postal delivery services into the weekend.
-With files from the Canadian Press
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