BLAINE/SUMAS, Wash. — Residents in border crossing towns across the US-Canada border are waking to good news this morning, August 7th, after dealing with traffic jams yesterday resulting from a work slowdown by Canadian border personnel.
The slowdown occurred while the 2 unions that represent Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) personnel were negotiating with Canadian government officials for a new contract. The unions said they had been working without a contract for 3 years.
After 6pm yesterday, word began to spread that a tentative agreement had been reached. Union officials reported their bargaining team reached a tentative agreement with the Treasury Board of Canada “following a 36-hour, round-the-clock, marathon negotiation session.”
Union members will need to vote in order to ratify the agreement.
The lines of semi trucks and trailers waiting to cross the border yesterday, filling downtown Sumas streets and stretching from the Pacific Highway (SR543) truck crossing in Blaine to I-5 and continuing for another 2.5 miles on the right shoulder of I-5, were nowhere to be seen this morning.