Unions representing longshore workers on the east and west coasts have vowed to legally challenge Tuesday’s decision by Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to send current prolonged employer-worker disputes paralyzing port operations to binding arbitration.
“We will fight this order in the courts. We will fight the arbitrated forced contract in the courts,” said Frank Morena, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Ship & Dock Foremen Local 514, which represents 730 foremen in British Columbia.
Amid rising pressure to intervene from business and port officials as dockers were notably locked out by employers in Montreal, Vancouver and Prince Rupert, crippling supply chains, Mr. MacKinnon directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to order the resumption of all operations and move both series of negotiations to binding arbitration.
“Negotiated agreements are the best way forward, but we must not allow other Canadians to suffer when certain parties do not fulfil their responsibility to reach an agreement,” MacKinnon said after noting the waterfront negotiations were in “a total impasse.”
“It is my duty and responsibility to act in the interest of businesses, workers, farmers, families and all Canadians,” the Minister said.
On Wednesday, the BC Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) said the board has issued an order for operations to resume at the province’s container terminals today (Thursday).
The BCMEA said dispatch functions will restart for the day shift while terminal operations and maintenance may begin by 4:30 p.m. depending on “operating realities.”
The BCMEA also said it has scheduled a hearing for Nov. 18 to hear from both sides of the dispute “on certain questions raised with respect to the ministerial direction.”
“With the resumption of work, coupled with an anticipated high volume of vessels and cargo, there will be extensive province-wide labor requirements across all port areas,” the BCMEA said in its statement.
ILWU Local 514 has been negotiating with the BCMEA since the expiry of a collective agreement in March 2023. A separate conflict over the implementation of semi-automated rail mounted gantry cranes at DP World Centerm terminal in Vancouver prompted the union to issue a strike notice last July – but the CIRB ruled that the threatened job action violated Canada’s labour code and must be rescinded.
For its part, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 375 in Montreal said that it was “disappointed” by Mr. MacKinnon’s order, charging he was “trampling on their constitutionally protected rights” and that the government should not interfere in collective bargaining between labor and management.
“There is no incentive for them to bargain in good faith because they know the federal government will back their side,” Candace Rennick, CUPE’s national secretary-treasurer, said in the statement.
The Maritime Employers Association locked out 1,200 longshore workers on Sunday night after they overwhelmingly rejected what the MEA called “a final comprehensive offer.”
Teamsters Canada has, meanwhile, also filed a court challenge to a similar intervention by Ottawa as a result of a country-wide rail stoppage.
(Port of Vancouver photo)
