Canadians got a big surprise late Thursday afternoon, when the union representing Canada's postal workers suddenly called for a nationwide strike.  The move came hours after the federal government announced major reforms to Canada Post, instructing the Crown corporation to end home delivery and close some rural mail outlets.  Canada Post lost $448 million before tax in the first half of 2025, following a loss before tax of $30 million in the first half of 2024. Why did this happen? The union representing 55,000 postal workers says it was caught off-guard by the government's changes and argued Canada Post and the government are creating the conditions that drive down demand for its letter and parcel services. Canada Post workers do not currently have a collective agreement. They've been in contract talks for almost two years over issues like wages and part-time workers, while the postal service keeps incurring significant financial losses. Earlier this month, the union rejected the government's offer of a 13 per cent pay increase, saying it fell short of the union's demand for 19 per cent. While CUPW said it was willing to work with Canada Post to allow weekend delivery and the addition of part-time workers, it said the corporation walked away from the negotiating table. What happens to my mail now? Canada Post said in a statement that no mail or parcels will be processed or delivered during the strike, and service guarantees for items already in the mail are suspended.  "No new items will be accepted until the national disruption is over," it wrote.

Amazon’s robotic automation efforts may wind up in the company cutting its human U.S. workforce roughly in half. An internal corporate memo initially obtained by the New York Times indicates Amazon thinks the increasing usage of robots could enable to it replace more than 500,000 U.S. human employees and avoid having to bring on another 160,000 workers by 2027, according to the New York Daily News. The memo also reportedly states Amazon believes referring to its robots as “cobots” (short for “collaborative robots”) may make transitioning to more robotic operations more publicly acceptable. The compny employs roughly 1.2 million workers in the U.S. The memo reportedly says Amazon’s ultimate goal is automating 75% of its corporate operations using robots. However, Amazon strongly disputed the notion that it seeks any widescale reduction in human employees by using robots in an official statement to the New York Daily News.

The case wasn't as clear when factoring in offline sales. Although total sales decreased to their second-lowest monthly figure of the year, core retail sales followed ecommerce's trend of inching up. Online retail sales inched up in June compared to May, according to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce. That comes as total retail sales dropped steeply in the same time frame. However, both online and total retail sales increased year over year. The National Retail Federation said consumers continue to worry about the impact of government policies on the economy — specifically tariffs. “The economy is gradually slowing,” according to Matthew Shay, NRF president and CEO. He said the macroeconomic environment has not yet disrupted economic fundamentals and that shoppers still have the ability to spend on priorities. However, he also said it has impacted the psyche of American consumers.