CWS Cancelation Follow Up

Good evening, Chapter 141,

This is an update to the CWS Termination email you received a few days ago from NTEU National. This email indicated that there are 90 ports around the nation they plan to terminate CWS. Chapter 141 has 3 port of entries on that list. Within that list of 90, 11 have been identified as "high priority" and Halifax is on that list. Calais and Madawaska are on the list of 90.

ALL locations will be bidding to their current negotiated schedule for the upcoming bid cycle.

What happens next? First, local management must initiate bargaining with our local Chapter. That has not happened yet, even for the priority list. Once a notice of bargaining is issued, we meet with local management to discuss the issues, swap proposals and try to reach an agreement. We will work with your local stewards and membership during that process. If there is no agreement, we go in front of an independent party at the Federal Service Impass Panel. At FSIP, management must prove that the CWS is the problem. FSIP currently does not have a full Panel, so there are already multiple cases waiting to be heard.

As we all know, our CWS agreements are not the problem, the lack of staffing is the problem. From start to finish, that process may take months to even years to reach a conclusion. In the meantime, all CWS agreements remain in place while bargaining is completed.

Please let us know if you have any questions, and thank you for being members. Your membership is important now more than ever. Please encourage your fellow coworkers to join, especially the new ones.

Feel free to reach out with further questions.