Small business impacted by Canada Post strike in Montreal
Posted November 18, 2024 2:04 pm.
Last Updated November 18, 2024 5:55 pm.
Four days after Canada post workers went on strike nationwide, small businesses are being impacted right before the holiday season. 55,000 Canada Post workers represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPE) walked off the job on Nov. 15 as part of their strike mandate.
Baltic Club is a small business in Montreal that sells stationery and home décor, and some of its suppliers rely on Canada Post to send the materials they use to create their products. On Friday afternoon, they were forced to halt production.
“We were waiting for a fragrances to make candles, we had the production ready to go, but unfortunately everything was stuck somewhere in Ontario so we can’t fulfill anything for now because of the supply shortage,” said Baltic Club CEO and co-founder Brice Salmon. “The worst part is that we don’t have any visibility on when this will come to an end.”
Brice Salmon, co-founder and CEO of Baltic Club poses for a photo in Montreal, Nov. 18 2024. (Erin Seize, CityNews Image)The owners said they drove two hours on Monday morning to pick up supplies to restart production of their body care products.
They picked up large buckets of soap in Saint-Lin-Laurentides and drove the supplies back to their production space in Repentigny.
Brice Salmon picking up supplies for soap production in Saint-Lin-Laurentides Nov. 18. (Photo courtesy of Brice Salmon)Baltic Club also sells candles, incense and diffusers. Salmon said there hasn’t been a large financial impact yet, but rather their credibility is being tested among customers.
“Our clients are really frustrated and they don’t want to hear anything about (fulfillment issues),” he said. “I have to make calls and send emails and apologize all day… it’s quite problematic.”
Co-founder and Baltic Club creative director Melanie Ouellette said they don’t use Canada Post exclusively to send their packages now, but she recalls a time when the business was growing and they relied on it exclusively.
“I remember three, four, five years ago, (the strike) would have been a really big problem because sometimes you don’t have access to other transporters and your only option is to walk to your post office to ship it from there,” said Ouellette. “Canada Post, they’re very good for going like outside of the city because they have offices pretty much everywhere and they have also good prices to go to the United States, that’s where they excel.”
Baltic Club sells their products in Canada and the United States.
Baltic Club products are seen in Montreal, Nov. 18 2024. (Erin Seize, CityNews Image)They make their products in the same warehouse where they are shipped by a third-party logistics company called ShipTo.
“Among the 80 clients that we have, two that said, ‘we want to use exclusively Canada Post,'” said Simon Côté, co-founder of ShipTo. “Now they finally have to say, ‘well, OK, now I’m going to have to try to use other people.'”
Simon Cote, co-founder of ShipTo. (Erin Seize, CityNews Image)Côté thinks other carriers like FedEx, Purolator and UPS have better service.
“It’s faster, it’s cheaper and a lot of the times even the smaller carriers are more up to date with technology (like) getting a text that your order is going to be there and a picture of your order,” he said. “The impact is that Canada Post will probably lose business.”
The union’s last resortCUPE said that after a year of bargaining and little progress, this was their last resort.
The union issued a 72-hour strike notice last week and want fair wages, safer working conditions and other improvements.
Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said he appointed the director general of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services as a special mediator to help with the negotiations.
However, the shipping period that ensures parcels make it on time for Christmas is just two weeks away.
