As of 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 22, the members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) engaged in a series of rotating strikes in and around Victoria, Edmonton, Windsor and Halifax.
When the effects of the strikes in Halifax reached the local level, the Casket reached out to the Antigonish business community, and was given a variety of unique of opinions in response to the strikes.
An employee representing a local electrical business who wished to remain anonymous said although they received their mail today, everyone at the business is concerned about how the strike will impact their ability to operate.
“It will definitely affect us. It will be a big impediment. The majority of our invoices are going out via mail. Most of our payments are coming in via mail,” the employee said. “The fact that the strike is rotational is a plus; it’s not just all-out.”
The employee said they hope the strike will be resolved soon, with Canada Post and the CUPW coming to a fair agreement, “because our mailman is awesome.”
Bill Vasil, owner and manager of Here’s your Signs & Awards, said, “I would consider it an inconvenience,” when thinking about the potential effects of a strike.
“Essentially, I won’t get my mail – I guess that’s the biggest deal,” Vasil said. “Invoicing and receiving payment are an issue.”
Jim MacIntosh, a barrister with MacIntosh & MacGillivray, an Antigonish law firm, said, “Clearly, the strike will have an effect on us if it takes place,” noting that his business relies on “old fashioned snail mail” when conducting business with the Registry of Deeds, located in Amherst.
“It will have the most direct effect on our dealings with the Registry of Deeds. Everything there is done by mail,” MacIntosh said. “We register most [deeds] electronically, but some we can’t, and we have to mail those to Amherst. It’s the single biggest issue we’re going to have.”
For other local businesses, such as HollisWealth, the strike is not a big deal. Andrew Bradshaw, an investment advisor with the wealth management company, provided a very straightforward initial response, when asked if the strike would be a problem for HollisWealth; “No.”
“We use couriers, so most of our internal business communications goes by courier. We don’t use Canada Post very often,” Bradshaw said. “Our biggest concern is that someone may want to use a cheque rather than an electric transfer of money.”
But even in the event of someone wanting to do a transaction offline and the old-fashioned way, Bradshaw said that would most likely be conducted through a courier as well.
“Using a courier is actually cheaper than Canada Post, so that is why we have an account with a courier set up.”
John Delorey with Delorey Land Surveys Inc., also was not too worried about the strike, saying, “it doesn’t affect us too much.”
“We don’t do a lot of stuff through the mail,” Delorey explained. “It’s not a big deal for us.”