Relief in the Sault as Canada/US border strike deadline delayed until next week

Cross-border weekend travelers no longer need to hold their breath: a strike at Canadian borders is not taking place, at least for now.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada and Customs and Immigration Union had set a Friday deadline to strike, and although no deal is in place, border workers did not hit the picket lines.

The 4 p.m. deadline came and went with no job action taking place. Around 9,000 employees staffing land and water borders across the country will stay on the job as mediation continues.

Sault chamber president Rory Ring said the news is a relief.

“It takes a lot of stress off of the table, which is great,” Ring said.

“People may have been stockpiling up for some inventory to make sure if there (are) challenges in the supply chain, they have the goods.”

Even if a strike were to take place, 90 per cent of employees at border crossings are deemed essential and can’t walk off the job.

However, they can ‘work to rule,’ a tactic where they do their jobs exactly as outlined in their contracts, such as asking all possible questions to each traveler they meet.

“They have the option to do things that maybe they may not do in the normal course of an operating day,” Ring said.

“And those can apply pressures, then, to the amount of traffic that’s being held up and that can then start to impact the consumer. For us, it’s mainly the tourism side of this equation because a lot of our local economy is driven by the tourism sector.”

The two unions have set a new date for a strike deadline, stating that if a new deal isn’t reached by Wednesday, then job action will take place.

It’s been three years since similar strike action brought border traffic to a standstill, causing major delays across the country.