By Moira Warburton
(Reuters) – Almost 9,000 Canadian border staff will begin “work-to-rule” strike action starting on Friday, the union announced on Wednesday, days before Canada begins allowing fully vaccinated U.S. visitors in the country for the first time in 16 months.
Talks between two unions representing Canadian border guards and staff – the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and the Customs and Immigration Union (CIU) – and the federal government reached an impasse in December 2020, and the unions served the federal government on July 27 with a strike notice.
Both sides came back to the table after the strike notice, but the unions said on Wednesday they had been unable to reach an agreement, and their members would begin working to rule as of Friday.
The action means staff will “perform their duties to the letter of the law,” a statement from the unions said. This will include not answering questions from travelers about border regulations or collecting duties and taxes.
“We truly hoped we wouldn’t be forced to take strike action, but we’ve exhausted every other avenue to reach a fair contract with the government,” Chris Aylward, PSAC’s national president, said in a statement.
The federal government did not immediately return a request for comment.
The unions have previously said that a strike would slow down commercial traffic at the land border as well as impact international mail and collection of duties and taxes.
Canada will allow fully vaccinated U.S. visitors into the country starting on Monday Aug. 9.
(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Vancouver; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Sandra Maler)
