Union officials from the U.S. and Canada met last week with leaders of the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership to sign a letter of understanding to use union labor to build the Jobs Tunnel.

The Detroit-Windsor tunnel, which could be up and running in five years, would relieve a trucking bottleneck that often sees drivers waiting up to five hours to cross the border.
"This is a great day for organized labor on both sides of the river," said James P. Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. "We are all delighted that the Jobs Tunnel will use union labor in its construction."
The group met at the Detroit portal of the Detroit River Tunnel located off 15th Street near Dalzelle Street. This is where the trucks will access the Jobs Tunnel on their way directly to and from I-75 and Highway 401, and where trains will continue to travel under the Detroit River as they crisscross the United States and Canada.
A large portion of the $92 billion in annual trade at the Detroit-Windsor border is delivered by more than 3.5 million trucks that can only use one lane on the Ambassador Bridge. At peak times, trucks sit idling upwards of five hours waiting to cross the bridge. The Jobs Tunnel will solve this transportation bottleneck by doubling truck-handling capacity, avoiding the risk of manufacturers moving their facilities to other U.S./Canadian border states or leaving the region for low wage countries in Latin America or Asia. Construction of the primarily privately financed $600 million project is estimated to be completed in five years.
The Jobs Tunnel will build a new larger rail tunnel next to the existing twin-tube rail tunnel to handle the larger rail cars that shippers are using today. These larger rail cars cannot fit through the existing rail tunnel. Once that tunnel is complete, the existing rail tunnels will be converted to truck-only use.
When it opens, the Jobs Tunnel will bring competition for truck traffic to the border for the first time ever.
Besides creating new and saving existing union jobs, the Jobs Tunnel will improve Homeland Security by providing a dedicated crossing for trucks as well as building a joint customs plaza on the Windsor side of the border. This 28-lane facility will process trucks efficiently and get them moving through the tunnel quickly.
The Detroit River Tunnel Partnership is a partnership between Canadian Pacific Railway and Borealis Transportation Infrastructure Trust, a subsidiary of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS).