Canada Post strike hurting retailers, but Union says workers are also hurting

There’s no end in sight in the Canada Post strike.

Matt Poirier is with the Retail Council of Canada. He says the labour disruptions couldn’t have come at a worse time.

“Unfortunately for retailers, this has been four weeks going at this point, and it’s at the busiest time of year for retail, the holiday shopping season. It’s been hard on the sector, but also it’s been hard on Canadians, who are more and more trying to shop online, and this has meant a real dent in those plans for them, too.”

Poirier says sales numbers in 2024 were on the decline. He says it has been a slow, hard year for retailers overall, “Often the holiday season is when retailers try to recuperate their year, or, make their year. So the fact that it’s been sluggish in the lead-up, and now they have all these disruptions added on top of that.”

He adds they welcome the upcoming GST holiday, and he hopes it will encourage Canadians to shop.

“We’re hopeful that the impact will be positive, but it’s a lot for them to handle all at once.”

Canadian Union of Postal Workers Negotiator Jim Gallant says retailers aren’t the only ones who are hurting.

“We’re not making any money and we need Canada Post to come to the table to get a fair deal. We have a small strike pay of $56 a day. That’s not a lot of money in today’s market, and people have been out for four weeks. It’s our members that are hurting, and we’re not out here for fun. This is to make sure that the future is there, and if it weren’t for postal workers fighting for it, the postal service may not be here today,” Gallant says.

Postal workers are looking for wage increases of 19 per cent over four years, cost of living allowances, 10 days of medical leave, and an increase in short-term disability payments.

“We just suffered through two years of 2 per cent and interest rates or inflation were quite high, and we’re trying to make up for some of what we lost through that inflation,” Gallant states.

When asked how long he thought this might drag on, Gallant responded that he hoped it would end tomorrow.