Postal strike hits city businesses

The Canada Post strike is rippling through Brandon’s business community, leaving companies and their customers grappling with delays and rising costs as they scramble for alternatives.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers launched the strike late Thursday after Ottawa announced it would allow the Crown corporation to take bold steps to shore up its struggling finances, including terminating daily door-to-door delivery.

With this being the second strike in less than a year, many local business leaders say their patience is wearing thin, while consumers are already feeling the consequences.

The disruption has hit the core of Leech Printing’s operations, leaving marketing materials and other mail-dependent jobs stalled in Canada Post warehouses, waiting for delivery, general manager Gillian Leech told the Sun.

“It’s an unfortunate situation, particularly for businesses and people trying to get their marketing material out there, exchange payments, things like that,” she said. “We need Canada Post. We need to be able to send mail to people’s mailboxes … so we’re just hopeful that between Canada Post, the union and the government, they can come to a reasonable solution.”

Leech said while couriers exist, they cannot replace “the reach of Canada Post, especially when it comes to direct mail marketing.” For now, she said, some customers with campaigns already printed and paid for must wait until normal service resumes.

“Things are just kind of in limbo until this gets sorted out,” she said.

Other businesses are not only experiencing delays but also significant financial strain.

At Leatherwood Custom Workwear, the impact is severe, owner Morgan James said Friday.

“We have merchandise worth about $100,000 trapped in Canada Post facilities and customers waiting on orders,” he said.

The strike, he warned, will be especially damaging if it drags on into the holiday season. While the company has already turned to private couriers like UPS and Purolator, many rural clients cannot be reached by those services, he said.

“We have lots of customers who can only receive at FPO or rural post office boxes, so they can only be shipped by Canada Post,” he said. “That’s causing a problem with everybody’s deadlines.”

The cost difference is substantial. Canada Post typically offers the lowest rates for standard parcels, especially smaller shipments, and many companies rely on bulk discounts to keep their operations affordable. By contrast, private carriers such as Purolator, UPS and FedEx often charge higher base prices along with fuel surcharges and handling fees.

“The cost difference will be between two and three times more expensive,” James said. “That means some customers won’t place orders at all because they don’t think they’ll be able to get them, and others we just can’t take because of their rural addresses.”

The Brandon Chamber of Commerce is hearing the same concerns from across the business community.

The frustration is mounting, particularly because this is the second strike in less than a year, chamber president Jennifer Ludwig told the Sun.

“Businesses again are being caught in the middle of this situation,” she said. “It’s causing a lot of people to lose confidence in Canada Post.”

She added that while private couriers are an option, they inevitably cost more, which in turn filters down to consumers. “Any time a business incurs extra cost, it has to be passed on in some form,” Ludwig said.

While electronic communication and online payments provide some relief, many in the community stress that physical mail and parcel delivery remain irreplaceable, especially for rural Manitobans and national businesses with clients in every province.

“It definitely gets harder in a rural market because a lot of these different services may not actually deliver to or pick up from a post box, so if you don’t have an actual street address, it becomes very tough,” Ludwig said.

Canada Post said it is reassessing its global offers following the federal government reforms and stressed it remains committed to reaching negotiated agreements with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers that are affordable and sustainable. The corporation pointed to more than $5 billion in operating losses since 2018 and argued CUPW’s latest proposals would add $2.8 billion in costs.

The government says it accepts the recommendations made by an industrial inquiry commission set up earlier this year. The commission called for an expansion of community mailboxes and said Canada Post should be allowed to close some rural post offices.

CUPW, which represents 55,000 postal service workers, said it was caught off guard by Ottawa’s changes. It argued that Canada Post and the government are creating the conditions that drive down demand for its services.

» aodutola@brandonsun.com

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