Four years of contract negotiations may have ended over the Easter weekend for some 8000 employees of the Canadian Border Services Agency, including 200 in northern B.C.
CBSA employees, through their union, the Customs and Immigration Union, announced that they had reached a tentative agreement with their employer and the Treasury Board of Canada. The CBSA is a federal agency responsible for border and immigration enforcement, as well as customs services.
The contract negotiations had been contentious. CBSA employees are considered to be essential service employees, and so do not have the right to stop border protection duties if a strike occurs. However, other job duties could have been halted in the event of a strike vote; in December, CIU president Jean-Pierre Fortin suggested members could cause delays at the border and stop collecting taxes. Several rallies were held across the country, including one at the Peace Arch crossing in the Lower Mainland in February.
On Friday, the Customs and Immigration Union claimed the agreement, which has yet to be ratified by its 8,000 members, was a victory for workers.
"This significant victory came after four years of talks, two court challenges, a charter challenge, several unfair labour practice charges, the mobilization of thousands of members, two media campaigns and over a full week of non-stop negotiations," the union said in a statement on its website.
"Salary-wise, scheduling-wise and also with the disciplines, we were able to get us in line and to close the gap in between ourself and the other police forces in Canada," Fortin said in an interview with the Citizen.
According to Fortin, employees will see a 17 per cent increase in pay as a result of the agreement. The increases will largely be paid out as a lump sum to employees as retroactive pay increases from the last four years. Fortin said the agreement also includes improvements to scheduling language, as well as better protection of workers in cases involving disciplines.
Fortin said the aim of the union was to bring working conditions and wages close to those of other law enforcement officers, such as the RCMP.
The union had claimed CBSA personnel were paid up to $12,000 less than employees of corrections services and the RCMP.
The agreement will face ratification votes by union members over the next eight weeks across Canada.
However, it won't be long before the union and management will be once again sitting across from one another; the current contract, whose negotiation began in 2014, expires in June. New negotiations are planned over the summer.
There are approximately 200 CBSA staff working in B.C.'s north. Most work in Prince Rupert, at the Hyder-Stewart Border Crossing and at the Prince George airport.
