Good morning. Wendy Cox here.
The newsletter is a bit late this morning to accommodate some breaking news at Canada’s ports. The decision Tuesday morning by federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to move to reopen terminals and force binding arbitration will affect four B.C. ports, the Port of Montreal and the Port of Quebec.
“I have directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order the resumption of all operations and functions at the ports, and to assist the parties by imposing final and binding arbitration,” Mr. MacKinnon said in a statement. “I have also directed the board to extend the term of the existing collective agreements until new ones are reached.”
The BC Maritime Employers Association locked out about 730 ship and dock forepersons on Nov. 4, hours after the union started what it called limited strike action that included a ban on overtime. The supervisors work at the Port of Vancouver, Canada’s largest, and also at ports in Prince Rupert, Nanaimo and Port Alberni.
The Port of Montreal’s 1,200 longshore workers were locked out on Sunday night after employees rejected a new contract with their employers’ group.
As recently as Monday, Mr. MacKinnon indicated he was reluctant to step in.
“The parties must understand the urgency of the situation and do the work necessary to reach an agreement,” Matthieu Perrotin, a spokesman for Mr. MacKinnon, told Globe reporters Eric Atkins and Nicolas Van Praet in an e-mail. “Canadians are counting on them.”
But the economic impact of the port disputes was having a swift and decisive toll.
The lockouts have halted almost all shipping of cargo containers – the intermodal boxes used to import and export clothing, electronics, machinery and food.
Business groups say the lockouts have stopped the shipping of goods worth about $1.2-billion a day and will lead to cascading layoffs and financial losses as the shutdowns persist.
Canada’s two big railways last week stopped accepting trucks and trains bearing containers for export at their depots across the country.
Container terminals have halted imports of consumer goods from Asia and exports of Canadian raw materials. Other facilities shut down the transport of everything from auto imports to potash exports.
In British Columbia, The Globe’s Brent Jang reported warnings from the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade that the shutdown would disrupt up to $800-million a day in trade and send ripple effects beyond marine facilities.
The dispute in British Columbia is centred around concerns about semi-automation. The union worries employers will use technology to make huge staffing cuts at B.C. docks.
Employers locked out the workers after Local 514 of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union Canada served strike notice on Oct. 31. The union said it had planned strike action that would have only a limited impact – banning overtime and refusing to implement technological change – and called the lockout decision an irrational and reckless reaction.
Talks to end the lockout were scheduled Saturday, but the employer cancelled them saying it saw no progress in a separate meeting with federal mediators.
The Port of Montreal’s 1,200 longshore workers, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, were seeking raises of 20 per cent over four years – deals that match those approved by their counterparts in Vancouver and Halifax. The employers had offered cumulative increases of 20 per cent over six years.
The Trudeau government has been reluctant to force an end to labour disputes, preferring the collective bargaining process. But employer lockouts and strikes – or just the threat of them – have this year disrupted traffic at a handful of federally regulated transportation entities. These include a brief strike by WestJet Airlines’ mechanics, lockouts at both major railways, and last-ditch labour agreements at Air Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency.
Mr. MacKinnon’s decision Tuesday to issue a directive to impose binding arbitration is what the government did to end lockouts at the two railways last summer.
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference has challenged the arbitration order imposed at both Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. to the Federal Court of Appeal, saying the right to collectively bargain is a constitutional guarantee. Without it, unions lose leverage to negotiate better wages and safer working conditions, the union says.
“These decisions, if left unchallenged, set a dangerous precedent where a single politician can bust a union at will,” Teamsters President Paul Boucher has said.
This is the weekly British Columbia newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.