Ottawa | Reuters — The world’s biggest fertilizer producer Nutrien cut production on Tuesday, citing the impact of a 11-day-old strike in Canada’s Pacific ports whose cost has now ballooned to an estimated $6 billion.
Some 7,500 dock workers represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU Canada) walked off on July 1 after failing to agree a new wage deal with the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA).
The union says the BCMEA is refusing to give a fair pay rise despite making billions of dollars in profits in recent years.
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The strike has upended operations at two of Canada’s three busiest ports, the Port of Vancouver and Port of Prince Rupert — key gateways for exporting the country’s natural resources and commodities and bringing in raw materials.
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Nutrien blamed the work stoppage at the Port of Vancouver for lowering export capacity at its Cory potash mine in Saskatchewan and warned of further hits to production if the strike is prolonged.
The strike could cause more supply chain disruptions and fuel inflation, economists have warned, just as the central bank is trying to cool the economy. The Bank of Canada is widely expected to raise its key interest rate on Wednesday by 25 basis points, to five per cent.
The estimated cost from the 12-day strike is pegged at about $6 billion, based on industry body Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters’ calculation of about $500 million in disrupted trade per day.
The two parties met in person for the first time in more than a week on Monday night, a government source not authorized to speak on the record said.
They were joined by Senator Hassan Yussuf, a former president of the Canadian Labour Congress who earlier this spring helped negotiate an end to Canada’s largest public sector strike ever, the source said.
In statements late Monday, both sides blamed each other for failing to reach a new deal. The association said its proposals to addresses ILWU Canada’s demand to expand the union’s jurisdiction over regular maintenance work on terminals were rejected by the union.
The workers and their employers had walked away from the negotiating table last week, but resumed talks on Saturday.
— Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer in Ottawa; additional reporting by Arshreet Singh.
CORRECTION FROM SOURCE, July 11: Today is the strike’s 11th day, not 12th as reported in an earlier version of this article. We regret the error.
