Montreal – In what was termed “an unprecedented response to a serious blunder,” the leaders from the unions representing longshoremen in the ports of Montreal, Vancouver and Halifax today staged a joint press conference to assail federal interference in the railway conflict and to seek re-assurances that similar intervention would not apply to the longshore sector.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said the common front was formed “to denounce the use of Article 107 of the Canada Labour Code which put a pre-emptive stop to labour action in the railway sector last week.”
The intervention of the federal government ended a lockout last Thursday by both CN and Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway as well as strike action by the Teamsters Union representing 9,300 railway workers.
At the request of Labour Minister Steven Mackinnon, the Canadian Industrial Relations Board, CIRB, imposed binding arbitration on railway workers – which CUPE qualified as “trampling the constitutional right of union members to negotiate collectively.”
“The decision sets a dangerous precedent for future labour disputes, and sends a signal to Canadian businesses that when negotiations get tough, the federal government will always come to their rescue to help them flatten on the rights of their employees,” CUPE said.
At the Montreal press conference, the longshore unions indicated they have sent a letter to Minister MacKinnon asking if it was his intention to resort to “forced arbitration” in the event of a strike or lockout in the longshore sector. If so, “the longshoremen of Canada will mobilise,” affirmed CUPE union advisor Michel Murray.
The union officials representing the common front are:Rob Ashton, President of the Port of Vancouver Longshoremen, ILWU; Martin Lapierre, president of the Union of Longshoremen of the Port of Montreal, CUPE; Albert Battens, East Coast Vice President of the International Longshore Association, ILA; Elizabeth Rancourt-Bond, president of the Union of Auditors of the Port of Montreal, ILA; and Kevin Pipper, President of the Halifax Longshore Union, ILA.
(Photo from CUPE)
