FORT ERIE, Ont., (Oct. 13, 2004) — Several border crossings across the country slowed down to a crawl for commercial traffic as Customs officers continued their work-to-rule campaign today.

The job action is part of a strike by The Public Service Alliance of Canada, which is representing 20,000 federal government workers. The union covers six different PSAC sectors covering 26 occupational groups, including Customs workers.

However, unlike their civil colleagues at departments like Immigration and Revenue Canada, front-line border guards and vehicle inspectors are deemed essential workers and cannot walk off the job. They are instead stepping-up a work-to-rule campaign — doing their jobs as meticulously as possible to slow down traffic — they began earlier this summer.

According to several news reports it appears the officers are only targeting Canada-bound transport trucks, with the worst of the commercial vehicle backups at the Southern Ontario border crossings. Passenger vehicles did not face major delays on bridges to Canada on the first day of the strike, which began at 12:01 a.m. yesterday.

Trucks at the Peace Bridge at Fort Erie, Ont.-Buffalo, N.Y. were backed-up for hours earlier today because of off-duty workers staging peaceful pickets.

Operations on the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge also were hampered. Brent Gallagher, spokesman for the Niagara Falls Bridge Authority, told the Buffalo News that the line of waiting trucks snaked more than a mile from the bridge yesterday.

Police officers on the U.S. side of the Sarnia-Port Huron bridge said traffic was in a “total gridlock” after 200 border workers set up morning picket lines on the Ontario side of the border.

Canadian Press is reporting The Public Service Alliance of Canada has asked the federal government for wage increases of 15 per cent over three years, while the government has been offering six per cent.

A government source close to the talks told CP that gap has narrowed, and both sides appear prepared to settle on a 10 per cent increase, compounded over a four-year period.

— With files from Canadian Press & Buffalo News