Strike at the border? What that means for you | About That

9,000 employees with Canada Border Service Agency are poised to go on strike this week that includes the people that manage basically every port of entry in the country sea land Rail and air there are big concerns about major delays that could play out not only at border crossings across the country but also in airports border service employees are considered essential workers so most of them can't actually walk off the job but they can work to rule which could seriously slow things down let's go through what that means the work to rule tactic is a pretty common one when employees aren't actually allowed to stop working it essentially means following every official Rule and regulation to a te even if and maybe especially if it slows things down the Border guards are given great discretion in law and under administrative regulations because they are the Guardians of the border and when a person comes steps up at the airport at Pearson or Ottawa or any airport or arrives in their car at a border point they have complete and total discretion to ask all kinds of questions normally you might get two or three questions as you cross the border how long have you gone for how much did you spend but if a border agent is working to rule which remember means they do their job to the letter they might ask you every single question in the book questions about criminal activity how much money you have if you have animals or plants or fireworks or food or even endangered species with you the list goes on Border employees also have the authority to flag shipments for spot checks generally they need to have some sort of reasonable grounds to think they could be suspicious but that can be anything from a weird smell to a nervous look from the driver you can imagine there's quite a bit of leeway there they have the full legal discretion to challenge interrogate any truck crossing the border to determine that the goods in that truck are what they claim to be if they decide to do it more aggressively and ask each person coming up to that border Point many more questions that's what they're paid to do that doesn't make that activity illegal and it's not just the employees you see at these checkpoints that could slow things down if they want to there are also lots of cbsa employees working at cargo warehouses like this one across the country they're in charge of processing both personal and Commercial shipments that come over the border and they can also flag things for a secondary physical inspection even before they go out for delivery working to rule also means opting out of overtime leaving your shift exactly when it's over and taking every break you're entitled to no matter how busy things get and the president of the union says overtime is often used to manage Staffing shortages during busy tourist Seasons instead of hiring extra staff worked rule would likely have a very very large impact on uh it would be disruptive to the Canan economy and of course to the millions of people who go uh in and out of the country but I know where they're coming from I I generally support them but it's it's going to be when you're sitting there waiting at the bridge it's going to be very frustrating think back to what happened last time these employees went on strike this gives you just a sample of how really awful the traffic has been at US Canada border crossings already today essential truck drivers are stuck in significant backups many of those trucks waited four or five hours to cross versus what normally takes few minutes airports were also a mess and this was before travel really bounced back post pandemic so the numbers were already way down according to stats Canada in July 2019 there were 4.7 million visitors to Canada in July 2021 the month before that last strike about 260,000 last year it shot back up to almost 4 million with the number of tourists now back to more than 15 times what they were in 2021 things could get really backed up just as things are getting back to normal the owner of grand Bazar Niagara says 80% of his customers are tourists and the last 3 years have been difficult enough his small business is still trying to recover from the co9 pandemic tourism generates tens of billions of dollars every year in Canada and the thought of waiting in a long line at the border could send some vacationers looking elsewhere it's not just a drop in tourism that could be a blow to the economy according to the federal government about 3.5 billion dollar worth of goods and services cross the US Canada border every day a large share of those trucks go back and forth through these four Crossings near Windsor sernia Fort Erie and Niagara Falls and that's just the stuff coming from or through the US consider all the other Imports coming by boat or plane from everywhere else around the world 2/3 of our GDP is exported and imported that's an awful lot of money of industries of jobs that are dependent delays could also be expensive for the Companies shipping these Goods even worse for some Industries like the auto sector that depend on shipments getting there fast they save money by only ordering what they need when they need it most manufacturing facilities tend to only have uh hours of of inventory on hand to uh to build Vehicles essentially as that vehicle is moving down the line the parts are right there uh on a just in time basis to go onto that vehicle just think back to 2022 when antivaccine mandate protesters shut down the Ambassador Bridge for 6 days trucks and other protesters blocking traffic at The Ambassador Bridge that links Windsor Ontario in Detroit Michigan and Ontario car manufacturers said that cost them $300 million Us in direct losses and that's just one bridge then there's the agriculture industry and the pharmaceutical Industries who also rely on Speedy deliveries since our products can actually go bad if they sit there too long you're talking uh possible increases in pay to their drivers for weit times because they're sitting at the bridge for a longer period of time it could be uh fines and uh with customers if they're if you're not on time and that means costs could trickle down I think any any sector that um that relies on crossb trade particularly with the United States being our larger trading partner is going to be adversely affected the union representing cbsa employees has some key demands they want better worker protections higher wages more flexibility and some changes to their retirement Provisions there's really nothing we're asking for that the other side should look at and say well we cannot possibly give them that this is absolutely an important issue our government is very seized of it parties are at the table working hard according to the union the two sides are still far part on wages they want pay Equity with RCMP and other law enforcement employees which could mean about a 15% rate in a statement this week the government said it's fully committed to reaching an agreement that is fair for workers and reasonable for taxpayers but now that a strike could be imminent the pressure to fix this and fast is only growing [Music]

Channel: CBC News

Views: 37,733

Keywords: CBSA, Canada Border Services Agency, PSAC, Border agents, Canada, United States, Border, Customs, Strike, Union, Job Action, Work-to-rule, CBC News, CBC News Explore, About That, Andrew Chang

Id: VLxdA9zJ_90

Length: 7min 56sec (476 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 07 2024