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Beginning on the fifteenth of November, the strike thus far for wages, pensions, contract work and health care have caused the shortage of eight million parcels and an impact on worker numbers of over fifty-five thousand. Talks up to this point have led to Canada Post offering to hire more part time staff and a wage increase of eleven and a half percent over the span of four years, yet this falls short of the demands set by the union: a twenty-four percent cumulative wage increase over four years, and full-time positions in some instances.

What are the implications of this ahead of upcoming international events though, notably Black Friday, and further down the line, Christmas? We can see that talks have not led to anything fruitful up to this point, and with the day fast approaching, it is not looking promising. The CFIB (Canadian Federation of Independent Business) provided a statistic that eighty percent of small businesses rely on Canada Post for some part of their operation, and many shops big and small, especially in Toronto, have reported a decline in sales already. In the coming days, we can only expect this to become a greater problem still, and the economic boom that many businesses should have been anticipating this year are highly unlikely to meet standards. Online shopping became a preferred way of shopping during Covid and largely stayed like this, and we can only hope that problems are rectified sooner than later to spare these businesses the losses that people are projecting.

Bibliography:

1. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/canada-post-strike-toronto-1.7386374

2. https://www.benefitsandpensionsmonitor.com/news/industry-news/canada-post-strike-disrupts-businesses-and-holiday-deliveries-nationwide/389891

3. https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canada-post-down-eight-million-parcels-amid-strike-as-talks-carry-on-over-weekend-1.7121057

This article has been reviewed and fact-checked by the editorial team at Youth Finance Network as of November 24th, 2024. © Youth Finance Network, 2025.