Postal Strike, and Why it Won’t Affect Me

Thursday, June 02, 2011

As I write this, a postal strike looms tomorrow.

The Toronto Star reports:-

“It has set a strike deadline of 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, though it is unclear if there’s a walkout whether it would be a full work stoppage or rotating strikes. In 2003, the union extended its deadline several times to reach a deal.”

My immediate reaction is to panic. I use postal mail to issue cards, flyers, letters and proposals.

My considered opinion is that the postal strike will hardly affect me.

1: Much of my revenue now arrives electronically through Interac, or by a devious route from a web site, via PayPal, and then directly into my bank.

2: My proposals go out hard-copy and signed by me, but they are preceded by a PDF copy sent by email so that the client has advance notice of what’s coming.

3: My mail-out cards and flyers are sometimes dated, sometimes not. A batch that I dropped in a box late yesterday won’t be collected until 2:30 p.m. today; they may sit in storage for a while, but each prospect will eventually receive a “touch”, as planned.

4: My incoming mail occasionally holds a printed cheque, but if I had a large one in the pipeline I’d ask them to hold it, or get a friend to pick it up, or have it couriered.

5: My incoming mail is about 95% junk mail and paper bills, but since I pay bills electronically, it’s a simple matter to make a guess and make a payment, or dial the toll-free number and make payment. The paper work can catch up when it feels like it.

In particular, a postal strike does not prevent me from continuing to work my way through my contact list, phoning people, emailing people or ...

• ... printing out flyers or PDFs to mail to people.

I just wish that the team that hands plastic bags of flyers on my door would go on strike ...

Talk to Me !

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