Talk about great moments in bad timing. Cannabis has officially gone legal in Canada this week, and a large proportion of retail sales are to take place through the country\u2019s mail system. Just as this system is being unveiled, Canada\u2019s postal workers are preparing to walk off the job, in one of the biggest labor disputes the country has seen in years.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Canadian Union of Postal Workers<\/a>\u00a0announced on Oct. 17 \u2014 the same day legalization officially took effect \u2014 that it has given strike notice to the\u00a0Canada Post<\/a>\u00a0that workers could walk out as early as the following Monday.\u00a0The\u00a0Canadian Press<\/a>\u00a0reports that the union, representing 50,000 Canada Post employees, says it is ready to call rotating strikes if agreements are not reached with its\u00a0Urban Postal Operations<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers<\/a>\u00a0bargaining units. The union is demanding improved job security, an end to forced overtime, and stronger health and safety standards.<\/p>\n Union president Mike Palecek sought to reassure mail users. \u201cOur aim is not to disrupt the public,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not to disrupt the service that we provide, that we\u2019ve been defending for years, so we\u2019re trying to come up with ways to put some pressure on Canada Post without impacting the public.\u201d<\/p>\n The union finally opted to issue the strike notice after the nearly year-long talks stalled with both sides still far apart, Palecek emphasized.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve said we would remain at the table as long as progress is being made, and we\u2019ve reached a point where we\u2019re not seeing a lot of progress,\u201d he told\u00a0Canadian Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n Canada Post had\u00a0issued new contract offers<\/a>\u00a0in the previous weeks, in hopes of averting a walk-out before legalization, as well as the holiday online shopping season. Federal Labor Minister Patty Hajdu has\u00a0appointed a mediator<\/a>\u00a0to try to help avoid a stoppage.<\/p>\n The province that would be most affected by a shut-down at Canada Post is Ontario. Provincial authorities there initially opted for a mail-only system for retail sales of cannabis. In August, they flipped and\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that brick-and-mortar retail cannabis outlets would be allowed. But thanks to this late policy flip, the first such retail stories are not likely to open until next April. That means Ontario cannabis consumers will be at the mercy of the mail for at least six months.<\/p>\n Ontario authorities are\u00a0said to be considering<\/a>\u00a0an emergency contract with\u00a0Purolator<\/a>, a delivery and courier service which is majority-owned by Canada Post but with a significant chunk held by private investors. So while Canada Post is what is known as a\u00a0Crown corporation<\/a>\u00a0in Canada and other Commonwealth countries \u2014 that is, a commercially operated government entity \u2014 Purolator is a separate company and considered part of the private sector. And its employees are represented by a different union:\u00a0Teamsters Canada<\/a>. The Teamsters went through their own crisis with Purolator last year, announcing a 72-hour notice of strike action at the end of March. But a strike was narrowly averted when both sides\u00a0came to terms<\/a>\u00a0at the proverbial eleventh hour.<\/p>\n Purolator already has contracts in place to deliver cannabis for Alberta and Prince Edward Island, and currently delivers medical marijuana for about half of Canada\u2019s Licensed Producers. Purolator\u2019s vice president for corporate strategy Ramsey Mansour said the company is ready to hit the ground running, with protocols in place for consumer age verification and secure delivery.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have set up the appropriate technologies, training and processes in place to be able to address this growing market,\u201d he told Canada\u2019s\u00a0Global News<\/a>.<\/p>\n This also a pressing question for British Columbia, which only has one retail shop legally operating \u2014 and\u00a0in Kamloops<\/a>, not the provincial metropolis Vancouver. Global News reports that crowds lined up at the B.C. Cannabis Store in Kamloops\u2019 Columbia Place Shopping Centre as doors opened the morning of Oct. 17 \u2014 with some 85 strains of bud plus a selection of oils, capsules and pre-rolled joints available for purchase. But this is still some four hours over the Coast Mountains from\u00a0Metro Vancouver<\/a>, where nearly half the province\u2019s 5 million residents live.<\/p>\n In Quebec, 12 retail outlets were\u00a0reported operating<\/a>\u00a0on Oct. 17, but this is still not nearly enough to cover provincial demand. By day\u2019s end, the site for online sales, run a newly formed Crown corporation, the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Qu\u00e9b\u00e9coise du Cannabis (SQDC<\/a>), had\u00a0already sold out<\/a>.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>,\u00a0would you buy cannabis online?<\/p>\n The post Canadian Postal Strike Threatens to Paralyze Cannabis Deliveries<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Talk about great moments in bad timing. Cannabis has officially gone legal in Canada this week, and a large proportion of retail sales are to take place through the country\u2019s mail system. Just as this system is being unveiled, Canada\u2019s postal workers are preparing to walk off the job, inContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,6162,6163,50,170,687],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29918"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29919,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29918\/revisions\/29919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Impact on Cannabis Consumers Will Vary By Province<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Canadian Postal Strike Threatens to Paralyze Cannabis Deliveries<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"