Workers walk a picket line at the Viterra Cascadia Terminal, one of several Port of Vancouver terminals, on Sept. 24.Jimmy Jeong/The Globe and Mail
Striking employees at six grain terminals returned to work at the Port of Vancouver on the weekend after federal mediators helped forge a four-year tentative agreement to end a week of action.
With the resolution of the four-day B.C. strike, employees who worked the Saturday shifts began clearing the backlog of everything from canola and wheat to barley and oats. There were 20 vessels waiting to load grain at the Port of Vancouver on Sunday morning, waiting their turn to be assigned berths when they become vacant.
About 650 unionized employees walked off the job on Tuesday during the busy harvest season. Peter Simpson, director-general of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, sat down for meetings with the officials from the union and employers starting on Wednesday.
The Grain Workers Union Local 333 and the Vancouver Terminal Elevators’ Association (VTEA) reached the tentative agreement late Friday after a turbulent week of labour relations in the dispute over scheduling and benefits.
The union’s bargaining committee had previously rejected an offer from employers under mediation before the two sides agreed to the proposed settlement, said Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association, which represents large shippers of bulk grain exports from Western Canada.
Workers walk a picket line at the Viterra Cascadia Terminal on Sept. 24. The Grain Workers Union Local 333 and the Vancouver Terminal Elevators’ Association reached a tentative agreement late Friday.Jimmy Jeong/The Globe and Mail
“Mediation was rekindled under the guidance of Mr. Peter Simpson,” Mr. Sobkowich said in a message Friday night sent to grain companies and industry stakeholders.
Local 333′s bargaining committee is recommending acceptance of the tentative deal when union members participate in ratification voting to take place by the end of this week.
The previous five-year collective agreement expired at the end of 2023.
Wages vary depending on the job classification. An electrical technologist currently makes $48.80 an hour, for example, while a mechanic earns $47.66 an hour.
The memorandum of settlement, sent Friday night by the union to its membership, has return-to-work protocols, including a clause to ensure that there will be no disciplinary action for unionized workers’ conduct during picketing.
Richardson International Ltd., Cargill Inc. and G3 Terminal are located on the north shore of Burrard Inlet while Alliance Grain Terminal Ltd., Pacific Elevators Ltd. and Cascadia Terminal are on the south shore.
“Thanks to the parties for putting in the work necessary to get a deal done, and to federal mediators for their support,” federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said in a post Friday night on social media platform X.
About 650 unionized employees walked off the job on Tuesday, including at Viterra Cascadia Terminal, during the busy harvest season.Jimmy Jeong/The Globe and Mail
The strike by grain terminal workers follows shutdowns at Canada’s two largest railways that temporarily disrupted a wide range of freight deliveries for several days in August.
Industry analysts say it could be a disruptive autumn for North American logistics, including a three-day strike planned this week at the Port of Montreal and threatened walkouts by workers at cargo terminals on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast.
Local 333 is a chartered local of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union Canada.
Members of ILWU Local 500, which includes Burrard Inlet and Howe Sound, have a separate collective agreement but they opted to show solidarity with Local 333 by declining to cross the grain terminal workers’ picket lines during the first two days of the strike.
Two stevedoring companies and the BC Maritime Employers Association, representing 49 private-sector companies such as shipowners and terminal operators, asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to intervene. The labour board made a ruling that ILWU Local 500′s actions constituted an unlawful strike.