B.C. businesses brace for disruptions as threat of Canada Post strike looms

With Canada Post workers days away from potential job action, Frank Von Hausen is rushing to get orders out the door.

Von Hausen’s Vancouver business relies on the postal service to handle nearly 90 per cent of his business.

Ironically, he sells collectible stamps.

“They will definitely go out — They probably won’t all get delivered unless we have rotating strikes,” he said of outbound orders from FVH Stamps.

“We just kind of recovered from (the last strike) and here we are again.”

2:07 Canada Post workers poised to strike Friday

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which represents about 55,000 Canada Post employees, has issued 72-hour strike notice and, without a deal, could take job action by 12 a.m. Friday.

The union alleges the move was necessary after the employer signalled an intent to change working conditions and cut benefits.

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“We are trying everything we can to avoid any kind of job disruption, and serving 72-hour notice does not necessarily mean it’s going to be a full shutdown,” CUPW B.C. and Yukon representative Stephen Gale told Global News.

“We have to maintain some type of strike activity as defined under the Canada Labour Code to maintain our right to strike … but what that could be or maybe we don’t know until that time actually comes.”

A key point of friction in negotiations includes the potential addition of part-time weekend workers tasked with delivering parcels.

That’s a change Canada Post says is necessary to modernize its business model.

“We need to fix the core business and we need to work with the union to say it’s 2025, it’s not 1982 anymore or even 2002,” Canada Post vice-president of communications Jon Hamilton told Global News.

“The world has changed, they are using less mail, they are looking for more parcel delivery, we need to fix that core business so we can return to sustainability.”

2:02 Future of Canada Post murky as postal union issues strike notice

Postal workers last hit the picket lines in November, but were ordered back to work after 32 days as pressure mounted around deliveries over the Christmas holidays.

A subsequent industrial inquiry commission report concluded the postal service was “effectively insolvent,” suggesting daily door-to-door letter mail delivery for individual homes should be phased out. The union has slammed the report as a regurgitation of Canada Post’s bargaining position.

Back at FVH Stamps, despite the uncertainty, Von Hausen says he plans to stick with Canada Post over its private competitors, which he says remain “much more costly.”

“Most of what we send is either a small envelope to a medium-sized envelope,” he said.

“We are in the stamp business. It all starts at a post office somewhere in the world … so we like to support the post office,” he added.

“People like getting mail, especially collectors … and we put special stamps on the envelopes to pay the postage.