Canadian Border workers strike? What effects on shipping?

[pmlinne]

I just read the following   (Aug. 4) "The Public Service Alliance of Canada and its Customs and Immigration Union, which represent the workers, said that it served a strike notice to the government on Tuesday and is now readying its workers to up the ante.

If a contract isn't reached by 6 a.m. Friday, the union said its members will begin a "sweeping" series of actions at Canadian airports, land borders, commercial shipping ports, postal facilities and headquarters locations."

Not sure if "actions" mean complete strike or rotating strikes like postal workers did a few years ago.  So, what are the consequences for sellers shipping outside of Canada?   Will it mean delays in parcels reaching buyers outside of Canada?   Will ebay support sellers if parcels are delayed?

[marnotom! · Accepted solution]

As far as I know, CBSA workers have nothing to do with outbound mail.  Customs only handles stuff coming into the country.

Having said that, if picket lines are created that prevent other workers from having access to a particular facility, then those workers will likely respect those picket lines.

Since the media release you quoted from refers to a "series of actions," it appears that rotating strikes are in the cards.

[clemowbooks]

It has been the practice of public service unions to use rotating strikes, which have the advantages of upsetting management who never know from one day to the next what is open and what is not, of not interupting the wages of members, of slowing but not stopping the movement of shipping, and causing more annoyance to large businesses (who yell at management) rather than the average taxpayer (who rarely will be discombobulated).

The Post Office "strikes" that have caused the most disruption over the past few years were actually Management Strikes (lockouts) which shut down the entire postal system.

Most of our commerce as eBay sellers is with the USA, and US residents have a duty-free allowance of $800.  CBSA workers would not often be handling those since there is no duty to be assessed.

And the new "NAFTA" has a duty-free allowance of $150 (and tax free allowance of $40) for Canadians.

This might affect containers from eBay International Shipping or from the GSP.

Which is to say, our American competitors.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@pmlinne wrote:

I just read the following   (Aug. 4) "The Public Service Alliance of Canada and its Customs and Immigration Union, which represent the workers, said that it served a strike notice to the government on Tuesday and is now readying its workers to up the ante.

If a contract isn't reached by 6 a.m. Friday, the union said its members will begin a "sweeping" series of actions at Canadian airports, land borders, commercial shipping ports, postal facilities and headquarters locations."

Not sure if "actions" mean complete strike or rotating strikes like postal workers did a few years ago.  So, what are the consequences for sellers shipping outside of Canada?   Will it mean delays in parcels reaching buyers outside of Canada?   Will ebay support sellers if parcels are delayed?

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Also reported:

While operating under work-to-rule, border officers could stop collecting taxes and duties, ask travellers more questions than usual and fully inspect truck manifests, slowing down processing times as a result.

So this could be good if you happened to be expecting parcels with USPS. Probably not much difference if you used GSP or International standard.

Full story below;

Border officers begin work-to-rule action as negotiations with government continue | CBC News

According to news this morning it was causing 5 minute delays for border crossings if you had ducks in a row. Longer if you required a covid test before entering Canada. 

-Lotz

PS. On the flipside when Canadians etc are eventually allowed travel to the USA there "may" be issues with folks that did mix and match vaccines.  Now if only everyone could get on some kind of same page for an acceptable Vaccine Passport!!  Would probably make like a bit less stressful going forward. Like it or not it will happen eventually.

[femmefan1946]

From the news it looks like a work to rule at the border gates and nothing to do with commercial shipping, just being slow with allowing tourists to drive into Canada.

A lot of citizens will be  happy about that.