The federal government in Ottawa has reached a new tentative agreement with Canada's border agents after a daylong work-to-rule campaign last Friday (August 6) left long lines of semi-trailers and passenger vehicles idling for hours at the country's busiest border crossings.
The deal, announced over the weekend after 36 hours of mediated talks, comes just days before U.S. citizens and permanent residents are expected to begin queuing up for their first chance to get into Canada since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
Long lines of semi-trailer trucks were seen at border points as the work-to-rule campaign slowed traffic to a crawl late last week. Commercial wait times for truckers at the Pacific Bridge in British Columbia reached more than five hours.
At Windsor's Ambassador Bridge in southern Ontario, both trucks and passenger vehicles faced hours long delays as well.
Guards who work for the Canada Border Services Agency were part of a job action that began August 6 amid contract talks between the federal government and the Public Service Alliance of Canada's Customs and Immigration Union.
The Customs and Immigration Union said in a written statement that the new tentative agreement acknowledges the hard work that members have been engaged in since long before the onset of the pandemic.
The four-year tentative agreement, which dates back to 2018, provides CBSA employees with an average wage increase of more than 2% a year, the union said in a statement. Border guards have been without a long-term contract since 2018.
The agreement also provides what the union calls better protection against "excessive discipline" in the workplace, a national committee to address "workplace culture problems," as well as paid meal allowances for uniformed members.
The deal also includes a suite of improvements to leave and allowance provisions, including handling of grievances, a domestic-violence clause and a promise to work towards early-retirement benefits for employees.
Union members still need to vote to approve and ratify the new proposed collective agreement.
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