General

Previously, due to the impact of wildfires and the supply of railway vehicles in Canada, Vancouver's port terminals were overcrowded and limited in operating capacity. Hapag-Lloyd issued an early warning announcement that due to the very serious backlog, a delay of 72 to 96 hours is expected.

On July 27, local time, two unions representing more than 8,500 employees of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) announced that the strike could begin as early as August 6, as thousands of border officials were working. To prepare for the strike, this labor dispute may undermine Canada’s plan to reopen its borders. At the same time, the strike will cause delays in port transportation, cross-border trucking, air transportation and international parcel business throughout Canada, and may even cause supply chain disruption!

Wildfires have caused new chaos to global exports that have been blocked by container shortages and soaring transportation costs. And the forthcoming general strike will have an even worse impact on the supply chain!

The Public Service Union of Canada (PSAC) and the Customs and Immigration Union (CIU) said in a press release that this means they may start a strike campaign as early as August 6, which means that Canada will reopen its borders to vaccinated Americans. A few days ago. Employees at the Canadian Border Services Agency and the National Treasury Board have been working without a labor contract for nearly 3 years.

In December last year, negotiations between the employee and the employer about signing a labor contract broke up unhappy. Since June this year, these employees have voted on whether to go on strike.

Many border workers were considered essential during the strike, but the union warned that the strike will have a serious impact on Canada’s import and export goods flow, services and personnel exchanges. At the same time, domestic and foreign mail and parcel exchanges and tariff payment will also be affected.

These union members, including border service officers, inland law enforcement officers, intelligence officers, investigators, trade officers, hearing officers, and non-uniform personnel at airports, land entry points, seaports and commercial ports of entry, have not been there since June 2018 work contract.

The Canadian Public Service Union and the Customs and Immigration Union are mainly composed of 5,500 employees of the Border Services Agency and 2,000 headquarters staff, as well as some Canadian Post Office staff and inland law enforcement officers. The necessary service agreement signed by the union allows only 2,600 members to take full strike action, and necessary employees can take "work-to-rule" actions in their common premises, which means that only basic tasks are completed.