Canadian border workers consider striking for new contract - WCAX

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PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (WCAX) - After more than a year of being closed due to the pandemic, the northern border could soon see another issue-- a strike from workers.

Canada Border Services Agency workers are looking at a strike vote starting next week, which is a secret ballot required before a union can strike.

The CBSA has been working without a new contract for three years. Now, they could potentially go on strike to get a new one.

We don’t exactly know what the strike could look if it were to happen. Business leaders are preparing for possible impacts but economists say they don’t think that will be necessary.

“Just when you think things can’t get more confusing or concerning at the border,” said Garry Douglas, the president of the North Country Chamber of Commerce.

After three years of no new contracts and months of negotiations that seem to go nowhere, the Canada Border Services Agency is looking at striking.

“It seems they have reached the point where they decided to up the pressure on the Canadian government,” Douglass said.

Douglas says well over 100 local businesses rely on the border and its workers for trade and commerce.

“If you start to have days when the Canadian commercial operation at Champlain may be shut down because they are on strike, you are going to have a day where the trucks pile up,” he said.

Douglas said it would take days to catch up with missing deliveries but if the border agents choose not to strike but to slow the process down, that also could lead to major impacts.

“Anything that would have been one question is now 20 questions, and let’s send more people into secondary,” he said.

That in turn would frustrate businesses and travelers, leading them to call their elected officials asking them to settle the contract.

Douglas says it’s not only manufacturers affected here but essential workers and even everyday items like fuel.

“It goes beyond the supply chain, it goes into a lot of daily needs we have here that could be interfered with when you start interfering with shipping,” Douglas said.

Colin Read, a SUNY Plattsburgh economics professor and the former mayor of Plattsburgh, says he doesn’t think this strike vote will have any impact here, rather it will give the workers more power.

“It just enables the union to have a little bit more leverage and one more tool in their toolbox,” Read said.

He says both countries know how important trade is for one another and they can’t make any monumental decisions without the other when it comes to crossing.

“You have to remember, Canada’s trade with the U.S. is bigger than any bilateral trade in the entire world and Canada very much value that relationship, so I think common sense will prevail,” Read said.

If the Canadian border agents do strike, it will only impact the crossing into Canada. Trucks and vehicles coming to the U.S. should see no impact.

Read says the bigger issue here is really getting the border back open for non-essential travel.

Douglas says he hopes this possible strike doesn’t take attention away from getting that ball moving.

Copyright 2021 WCAX. All rights reserved.

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