TORONTO —
Long lines of vehicles and hours of delays hit Canada’s borders on Friday as nearly 9,000 Canadian Border Service Agency workers began a labour action across the country, and the situation could get worse as the country prepares to open the border to fully-vaccinated U.S. travellers.
The work-to-rule action began early on Friday after Public Service Alliance of Canada and its Customs and Immigration Union, which represents the workers, confirmed they had not come to an agreement with the government on a new contract.
“Our bargaining team representing CBSA employees has been in mediation with CBSA and Treasury all night and through to this morning, and we’re giving them a bit more time to negotiate at the table,” the union said in an emailed statement. “In the meantime, work-to-rule actions are underway at border crossings and airports across the country.”
As the vast majority of border workers are considered essential workers, the union has said the job action will not be a full-on strike, but a work-to-rule activity at the country’s airports, land borders, commercial shipping ports and postal facilities.
By mid-morning, there was a long line of vehicles at the Blue Water bridge crossing between Sarnia, Ont. and Port Huron, Mich., said truck owner-operator Rick Jaatinen.
“I’ve been four hours trying to get through the border,” Jaatinen told CTVNews.ca in an interview, comparing it to a crossing that would normally take much less than one hour.
In the midst of a journey from Chicago to Stittsville, Ont., Jaatinen said he was worried about the impact a lengthy work action could have on his livelihood.
“This is impacting my wages, and my logbook and everything. We only have a certain amount of hours we can operate in a day,” he said.
The union has been without a contract for three years, and says a new agreement should include salary parity with other law enforcement workers and better protections against harassment, among other demands.
Treasury Board spokesperson Geneviève Sicard said in an email on Friday that mediation had been ongoing through the night and was continuing.
“The government is still at the table and will not walk away,” she said.
A prolonged job action has the potential to see worse delays, as Canada plans to open the border to fully-vaccinated U.S. travellers on Monday, which has the potential to unleash pent-up traffic from U.S. citizens and residents who have been unable to visit Canada since early 2020.
According to the union’s website, during a work-to-rule strike action CSBA employees “will obey all of the policies, procedures and laws applying to their work, and perform their duties to ’the letter of the law’. This may cause long and unavoidable delays at Canada’s borders as workers carry out their jobs as they were trained to do.”
Following the announcement, Toronto’s Pearson International Airport said in a Tweet that airport operations could be impacted on Friday due to a peaceful labour demonstration by CSBA workers.
“If you are departing from Pearson today, please consider leaving early to account for potential delays,” it said.
