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?

[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.