eBay Sends Letter to Canadian PM Trudeau on Behalf of Small Businesses

The ongoing labor dispute at Canada Post is now in its fourth week and increasingly creating backlogs and delivery delays that are hurting small businesses.

Andrea Stairs, General Manager of eBay Canada & Latin America, sent a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau on behalf of Canadian eBay small business sellers.

She expressed concern about the negative business impacts the ongoing Canada Post labor disruptions are having on Canadian micro and small retailers – particularly now, with the holiday retail season upon us.

In the letter, which was also sent to Ministers Hajdu and Qualtrough, Stairs urges the government to explore all available solutions to solve the current situation.

The letter complements other efforts eBay Canada is taking to engage the federal government on the impact the ongoing labor disruptions are having on the Canadian small business community.

While this letter was sent on behalf of Canadian small and micro-businesses, the fact is that many U.S. sellers are also feeling the impact of the rotating strikes at Canada Post.

Here is the letter from eBay to PM Trudeau.

New Offer – But is It Enough?

While it appears Canada Post has issued a new contract offer to employees, but it has imposed a deadline of Saturday, November 17 for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers to accept the deal.

There has not been a response from the union on this offer, but Prime Minister Trudeau has already hinted that the Canadian government may look at all options to bring the labor dispute to an end. That may require legislative action.

Richard Meldner

Richard is co-founder of eSeller365. He has over 17 years of experience on eBay which includes tens of thousands of sales to buyers in over 100 countries and even has experience with eBay’s VeRO program enforcing intellectual property rights for a former employer. And for about two years Richard sold products on Amazon using Amazon FBA in the US.

To “relax” from the daily business grind, for a few weekends a year, he also works for IMSA as a professional race official.