Press Release
Members of Branch 26 of the Customs and Immigration Union (CIU), who work for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) in Northern Ontario, are standing with their American counterparts of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (USCBP), who currently are furloughed.
With the U.S. government shutdown, now the longest on record, federal public servants once more are paying the financial toll for political issues that are not of their making.
Furthermore, the American people already are feeling the effects of the shutdown, with repercussion to flight travel, access to government websites, national park maintenance, and many more.
“Our Canadian federal service workers have been dealing with this same financial insecurity for almost three years now due to the Phoenix pay system,” noted Mathew Ashworth, CIU Branch 26 president.
“Our hearts go out to the hundreds of thousands of dedicated U.S. federal public service workers, including USCBP officers, who are living with the same anxiety and stress that our own members are facing,” he remarked.
As a gesture of solidarity with their American counterparts, over the next few days, CIU members who work at our ports in Pigeon River, Fort Frances, Rainy River, and Sault Ste. Marie are going to be delivering food across the border to help these officers and public servants.
“We know all too well how unfortunate it is when governments let politics get in the way of paying their dedicated employees,” Ashworth said.
“That is why our own members are donating food to the many dedicated public-service workers who continue to show up to work every day while not being paid,” he noted.
