Workers walk a picket line at the Viterra Cascadia Terminal, in Vancouver, on Sept. 24.Jimmy Jeong/The Globe and Mail
Workers at six Vancouver grain terminals have gone on strike and disrupted agricultural exports to Asia during the crucial harvest season, especially for shipping canola before China acts on its threat of sanctions against the key commodity.
About 650 members of the Grain Workers Union Local 333 walked off the job on Tuesday morning, halting trade of everything from canola and wheat to barley and oats from those terminals.
Negotiations broke down on Friday between the GWU and the Vancouver Terminal Elevators’ Association. The strike by grain workers means bottlenecks will grow along supply chains in Western Canada this week, after a railway shutdown that temporarily disrupted deliveries of a wide range of cargo for several days in August.
While an array of grain is affected by the strike, canola exporters are notably worried about the upheaval.
Last month, the federal government announced a 100-per-cent surtax on imports of Chinese electric vehicles into Canada, effective Oct. 1. China retaliated this month by beginning an anti-dumping investigation into canola shipped from Canada.
It’s important for canola exports to be processed without interruption, given the anticipated sanctions from China in the future, said Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association, which represents large shippers of bulk grain exports from Western Canada.
Michael von Massow, a food economist at the University of Guelph, said there will be high costs associated with the strike and damage to Canada’s reputation internationally as a reliable trading partner.
“While you have many boats and many farms, you have a small number of terminals that can sort of bung the system significantly when they’re not working,” Prof. von Massow said in an interview. “It backs up everything on the Prairies and it stops the flow of grain going to Asia and to other regions.”
The Grain Growers of Canada estimates that the work stoppage will disrupt $35-million a day of bulk grain exports. The Grain Growers, Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan and Canola Council of Canada urged federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to intervene in the dispute.
Fraser Surrey Grain Terminal Ltd. at the Port of Vancouver and Prince Rupert Grain Ltd. in northwest B.C. continued operating on Tuesday because workers there have separate collective agreements.
Mr. MacKinnon said on Tuesday that he has asked the union and employers to resume bargaining.
“After a bumper-crop summer, Canadian farmers and businesses need to get their harvest to market. Parties need to work hard to get a deal,” he said in a statement.
The six grain terminals affected at the Port of Vancouver are critical export sites for farm crops from the Prairies.
“A work stoppage at the Vancouver grain terminals will cause significant financial and reputational harm at a time when the whole industry, from farmers to processors to exporters are already facing significant market challenges and headwinds,” Canola Council president Chris Davison said in a statement on Tuesday, after the strike began.
“This is another gut punch for farmers,” Saskatchewan agricultural association president Ian Boxall said in a news release on Monday, in response to Saturday’s 72-hour strike notice issued by the union.
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. Those terminals received 52 per cent of all grain production in Canada last year, according to the Grain Growers.
Alliance is co-owned by Parrish & Heimbecker Ltd., Paterson GlobalFoods Inc. and North West Terminal Ltd.; Pacific Elevators is owned by Viterra Ltd.; and Cascadia is co-owned by Viterra and Richardson International.
“We are concerned about further labour disruptions impacting port and supply chain operations – damaging Canada’s economic prosperity,” the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority said.
The previous five-year collective agreement expired at the end of 2023.
Employers said progress has been made on wages but the two sides remain far apart on benefits.
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.
Douglas Lea-Smith, president of Local 333, said the Vancouver Terminal Elevators’ Association unfairly reached out directly to employees this week with a proposed settlement, but that the employers should be negotiating with the union’s bargaining committee.
Local 333 is a chartered local of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU).
The labour unrest at the six grain terminals is taking place as Local 514 of the ILWU, representing about 730 ship and dock forepersons, awaits a ruling from the Canada Industrial Relations Board. In May, the BC Maritime Employers Association filed a complaint with the labour board, alleging bad-faith bargaining on the part of Local 514.
Members of the local are supervisors of the ILWU’s rank-and-file workers who went on a two-week strike last year at B.C. ports.