Border guards union plans court action against federal move

April 23, 2014

...The Public Service Alliance of Canada is asking the Federal Court to toss out a new essential-services agreement the government recently handed the union. It added more than 1,000 positions, including 400 working in trade matters, that the Canada Border Services Agency has never considered essential to the safety and security of Canadians.

By including them in the essential-services agreement, however, the government ensures that more than 80 per cent of the bargaining unit, including the traditionally militant border guards, will be deemed essential. This, under the Conservatives' new rules, denies them the right to strike and forces them into arbitration if they can't reach a contract agreement...

Some 98 per cent of border guards have been essential workers for years, but about 20 per cent of the rest of the bargaining group has typically been deemed non-essential. A strike by these 20 per cent would be enough to slow down commercial traffic at the border and give the union some leverage at the bargaining table, Fortin said...

This has been excerpted from the 22 April 2014 article by Postmedia News and is available in its entirety at http://www2.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=3dd6e4b6-5132-44c2-ace4-867889014e20


Topic(s): 
Canadian Economy & Politics
Information Source: 
Canadian News Channel
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