Transit strike had mixed impact on small business
For more details
Preliminary Survey Results
Transit strike impacts on Halifax area small businesses
We surveyed our members in HRM to better understand the impacts of the transit strike on local businesses.
- 55 per cent of HRM businesses say the transit strike negatively affected their operations; 40 per cent say business was unaffected.
- The impact has been mostly felt by businesses in the retail and hospitality sectors.
- Business owners found new ways to cope with the strike, including adjusting work schedules, arranging carpooling for staff, picking up and dropping off employees themselves, and paying for taxis to get employees to and from work.
While businesses were eager to see an end to the strike, they wanted the outcome to be one the city can afford. Fifty-five per cent of business owners said they support replacing the union's right to strike with binding arbitration, but only if certain criteria is taken into account when deciding the terms of the agreement, such as the impact on taxpayers and pay for comparable jobs. Businesses not supporting binding arbitration expressed a high degree of concern with its potential cost for taxpayers.
To learn more about the impacts of the transit strike on small business, please find the attached summary of our preliminary survey results. Our survey results include personal accounts of how the strike has impacted some of our members in HRM.
