In follow up to the Canada Industrial Relations Board’s decision earlier this week, the BC Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet with the assistance of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) on Tuesday, October 29 and continue as necessary on October 30 and 31, the BCMEA announced.
“The BCMEA is committed to engaging in good faith to achieve a balanced agreement that recognizes the hard work of the 730 forepersons on B.C.’s waterfront while ensuring West Coast ports remain competitive, resilient and affordable for all Canadians,” the BCMEA said. The union’s current contract expired on March 31, 2023.
On Wednesday of this week, the CIRB issued a decision that found for the third time in this round of negotiations that Local 514 has bargained in bad faith.
The decision followed the CIRB’s ruling this past summer that Local 514’s attempt to isolate DP World with a strike vote and strike notice in July 2024 was bargaining in bad faith, and therefore illegal. In that same ruling, it also held that Local 514’s proposal regarding DP World’s Nanaimo terminal constituted bargaining in bad faith because it was raised too late into the negotiation process.
The CIRB determined that Local 514 bargained in bad faith by tabling a minimum manning proposal at DP World (Canada) Inc., more than a year into the bargaining process.
The Board decision read in part: “The Board is of the view that the shop stewards and the union executives were generally aware that automation of operations at Centerm terminal was being developed and would be implemented. The Board also accepts that shop stewards knew of and were involved in previous changes to manning made by DP World in 2022 as a result of the introduction of new RMGs, and by implication, the union ought to have known of these developments. Despite this knowledge, no efforts were made to include items related to the job protection or minimum manning requirements in the initial bargaining proposals….”
“Further, it became clear in August 2023 that remote and semi-automated operations of RMGs would result in some changes to the manning model. This information was communicated to shop stewards through a detailed presentation and at least one of them indicated it communicated this information to the union President. Despite this knowledge in August 2023, no bargaining proposal was made to the BCMEA until April 2024.”
“The Board concludes that the union did not make every reasonable effort to reach a collective agreement by waiting until April 2024 to put forward a manning bargaining proposal, and that this was contrary to its obligations under section 50(a) of the Code.”
(Photo of Centerm terminal at Port of Vancouver)
