Blue Water Bridge Strike

 

It appears to me as if there will be some major problems in border crossing over the next little while if in fact there is a strike involving the Blue Water Bridge personnel in Sarnia shortly.  There could well be a negative impact in our area if a significant number of vehicles decide to cross the border here instead of the Sarnia crossing because of problems there.

As I am sure some people who live in our area are not clear about, that Bridge is a strong competitor of the Ambassador Bridge in the Windsor/Detroit area for border crossing. Sure, we are separate in different areas in Ontario by several hours if one travels over Highway 401 between us. However, if one is going to other areas in the US that are further west from eastern areas in Ontario, one might cross over into the US either via Sarnia or in Windsor to get there and then to come back here.

Here is part of what the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which is the Union trade group, wrote in a press release distributed on November 20, 2016:

"The 47 workers represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) who work for Blue Water Bridge are taking strike action after the employer (the Federal Bridge Corporation), refused to bargain fairly and continued to demand major concessions. 

PSAC served the employer with the legally required 72-hour notice as of Thursday November 17, 2016, following a membership meeting with the workers at Blue Water Bridge. Members have made it clear that if the employer is not willing to negotiate fairly, that we would take strike action.  

PSAC and the employer met for one day of bargaining on Saturday, November 19, 2016, in a last attempt to reach an agreement. The employer continued their demands to slash the workers benefits and demand major concessions that would have set workers back years.  

“We tried to get an agreement, but they refused to negotiate in good faith and remove the concessions and roll backs off the table”, says Paul Haney, Local President. “I am sorry that commuters and commercial vehicles will be inconvenienced now because of the disrespect the Federal Bridge Corporation has shown its workers.”  

Effective, November 21, 2016, at 6:00 a.m. our members will be in a legal strike position."

It certainly appears to me as if someone wants a strike to take place or the serious threat of a strike to happen and will require significant changes in one of the parties' bargaining positions to prevent it. Here is also something that I just learned from a Union official:

"We were in mediation with the employer to try and get a contract. Talks broke down when they walked away from the table without discussion our proposals in September.  

Once that happened, we had to go through a legislated “cooling off period” of 21 days. Once this time passed, either side could give a 72 hour notice of a strike or lockout."

Assuming that the strike does take place, Management will still continue to run the Bridge. Here is what is reported:

"Corporation spokesman Andre Girard says the Blue Water Bridge will remain open and the traffic flow will be maintained throughout the labour disruption. 

“Contingency plans are in place to deal with an eventuality to maintain traffic flow as long as the situation remains unresolved,” says Girard. “Management and non-unionized staff have obtained certification in the Transportation of Dangerous Goods and Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System as well as training for toll operation and other related bridge operation duties such as building maintenance and services to tenants of the Blue Water Bridge Corporate Centre on Venetian Blvd.” (Dave Dentinger, Blackburn News, November20, 2016)

One may well wonder how well organized that border traffic will be. Of course, my own view is that traffic will be backed up entering into the Sarnia area from the US, sometimes quite significantly, because of the strike if one takes place. The strike would come at a very difficult time considering it would happen "just ahead of the American Thanksgiving and the Black Friday shopping spree in the U.S." Who knows how bad the situation would be at the Border in Sarnia if there was a large volume of traffic and perhaps the number of employees working would be reduced. How many hours would people have to spend at the border there before they would be able to clear Customs?

It should not be that difficult for us in the Windsor area to guess that traffic here, especially truck traffic and perhaps some auto vehicle traffic for those going into the US west and coming  back, will increase significantly as well.

"We gave the 72 hour notice and will be going on a legal strike as of 6am tomorrow."

I assume that even though there may be backups here because of the heavy additional traffic it would clear a lot quicker than in the Sarnia area. I am sure that the Ambassador Bridge Company would make it clear to the Canadian Government that it expects there to be sufficient Government workers here to deal with any increased traffic whatsoever.

In my opinion, if there is a strike, I would not expect it to end very quickly if there have been so many difficulties already between the parties. Let's just see what happens. Who knows, it may be that the parties will still have some discussions overnight that might put off a legal strike for the time being.  Somehow though, I doubt it.