The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU Canada), which represents about 7,400 longshore workers at various Vancouver and Prince Rupert port facilities, said Tuesday afternoon its longshore caucus had voted to reject terms of settlement proposed last week by federal mediator Peter Simpson’s team.

Instead, ILWU Canada said, its membership “will be back on the picket line for a fair and negotiated collective agreement” as of 4:30 p.m. PT.

Service for bulk grain vessels at West Coast ports is exempt from the work stoppage under Canada’s Labour Code.

Several farmer and ag industry groups had been publicly calling for federal action to end the strike, however, as containerized pulse crops, perishables such as meat and produce, fertilizer and other goods face potential delays.

The union caucus “does not believe the recommendations had the ability to protect our jobs now or into the future,” the union said Tuesday.

Work was to resume at B.C. ports last Thursday evening after the port management group, the B.C. Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA), said a tentative agreement had been reached and the longshore workers’ 13-day strike would end.

Simpson and his team had been directed by federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan to draft terms for an agreement to take to the union and management for their review — an option that was open to O’Regan under the Canada Labour Code.

However, ILWU Canada had not said last Thursday whether it would put the mediator’s proposed deal to a ratification vote.

Rather, it said Tuesday, with the “record profits” BCMEA member firms have collected in recent years, “the employers have not addressed the cost-of-living issues that our workers have faced over the last couple of years as all workers have.”

Also, the mediator’s proposal called for a collective agreement with a four-year term, which ILWU Canada said “with today’s uncertain times, is far too long. We must be able to readdress the uncertainty in the world’s financial markets for our members.”

BCMEA, in a separate statement Tuesday, said ILWU’s “internal caucus leadership rejected the tentative agreement, before it was even taken to a vote of the full union membership.”

The employer group said the proposed “fair and comprehensive package could not satisfy some of (ILWU’s) internal caucus leadership, and in rejecting this tentative agreement, ILWU leadership is choosing to further harm Canada’s economy, international reputation and most importantly, to Canadians, their livelihoods and all those that rely on a stable supply chain.”

BCMEA said the proposal had called for “considerable hikes in wages and benefits” that are “generally above the established norm of recent private and public sector union settlements in British Columbia and Canada.”

The tentative deal had also included “specific provisions that addressed the union’s concern regarding ‘contracting out’ work and measures to improve training, recruitment and retention of ILWU trades workers now and in the future,” the employer association said.

Among those provisions, BCMEA said, the deal called for “benefit coverage for all casual trades workers, a tool allowance, and a commitment to increase apprentices in the industry by 15 per cent.”

A statement was not yet available early Tuesday evening from O’Regan or Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, both of whom were attending the Atlantic Growth Strategy Leadership Committee meeting with Atlantic Canada’s premiers Tuesday in Moncton. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“So you have cargo held in Vancouver or on its way to Vancouver, or people not shipping to Vancouver because they don’t want to pay demurrage and detention,” he said.

Demurrage is the charges paid for the use of a container within a terminal, while detention is the fee paid for the container’s use outside of the terminal.

Talks between the B.C. Maritime Employers Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada broke down July 3 following a marathon bargaining session during the Canada Day long weekend.

With the previous five-year agreement having expired March 31, ILWU Canada said it’s seeking a two-year deal with wage increases of 11 per cent in the first year and six per cent in the second. Also, the union accused port employers of raking in record profits, while the BCMEA charged the union’s demands are unreasonable.

Talks resumed several days later with the assistance of federal mediators, but negotiations stalled a second time on Tuesday.

While pulse exports by container remained at a standstill, bulk grain carriers are still being loaded as required under the Canada Labour Code.

“The container business is being stopped right now and it is a problem, and the [federal] government needs to intervene,” Mosnaim said.

So far, the federal Liberal government has resisted demands to recall Parliament in order to quickly push back-to-work legislation through the House of Commons and Senate. The premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan, along with some business and agriculture groups, have demanded a stronger response from Ottawa.

Mosnaim noted something of a silver lining for pulses with the port workers’ strike: summer, between the end of the old crop and the coming new crop, is a slow time for exports.

The labour dispute’s impact on Canada’s pulse exports would be far greater, he said, if it occurred in September when the new crop was being harvested.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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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.

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.

READ MORE: Pork sector calls for essential service status amid B.C. port strike

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.

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The call comes as a longshore workers’ strike at British Columbia’s West Coast ports nears its second week, blocking the shipment of Canadian meat and most other exports.

Canadian Pork Council (CPC) chair Rene Roy said in a release Friday that hog producers “are seeking (Transport Minister Omar Alghabra’s) assistance to ensure perishable agricultural products, and farmers, do not suffer undue hardship from this labour action.”

Canada’s Labour Code specifies that longshore workers must continue to serve bulk grain vessels during such a work stoppage — although that requirement does not cover containerized traffic, which includes some pulse crops. A separate ad hoc agreement between the longshore workers’ union and port terminal management also allows longshore service for cruise ships during this strike.

“We believe a precedent already established for wheat is available to our agricultural industries,” Roy said Monday. “As representatives of Canada’s pork sector, we’re asking the minister to exercise his power as minister to ensure these products continue to move through all Canadian ports.”

In an interview Roy added that the CPC has been in communication with beef producers and other agricultural producers’ associations throughout the process.

Concerns are mainly over the meat’s perishability — and where it will end up if not shipped.

A majority of Canadian pork is exported to international markets, especially in Asia. Roy said this means that packers and distributors here in Canada will be left with an excess of meat at risk of going to waste.

“There are products that are already packed,” said Roy. “This is a real problem because it’s not frozen right now. It’s fresh.”

Many pork packers have limited storage capacity of their own, and “it’s really hard to find contracts really quickly to other countries in a really short period of time,” he said.

The CPC said in its release that unsold products will “create an environmental disposal challenge and lead to enormous waste and environmental damage — needlessly.”

Many Canadian pork processing plants set to close in the next few weeks could end up with a backlog of unsold meat products, which may lead to “millions of dollars in losses across agriculture very quickly,” according to the release.

These closures were largely a result of hardships faced by the sector in recent years, Roy said.

“The industry in general isn’t going through an easy period, both at the producer and at the processor level. We have experienced loss, financial loss in the last two years and this is one reason why we have seen closures.”

“We are we are requesting this from the government right now because it’s not the first time,” Roy said. “We have seen this happen in the past. Also, the strikes have affected us in the past.”

Roy said this call is not a sign that CPC does not support the strike itself, but a means to prevent widespread waste.

“We are not denying in any ways the right of workers to go on strike,” he said “It’s just that for perishable goods, we have to find a solution. It is not acceptable in our society to let go to waste such quantity of food.”

The B.C. Maritimes Employers Association, which represents port employers in labour talks, said in a separate release Monday that exports of other perishables via West Coast ports may also be in jeopardy.

Harvest season for major B.C. fruit exports “has just begun,” the BCMEA said, adding “up to 10 million pounds of blueberry exports are at risk, with Japan and South Korea as primary export destinations.”

Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan said Friday on Twitter that the BCMEA and ILWU Canada are “still working with mediators to reach a deal” and noted “government, industry and labour are all concerned about the consequences of this disruption.”

— Jonah Grignon reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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The B.C. Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA), in a statement Monday, said it’s “of the view that a continuation of bargaining at this time is not going to produce a collective agreement” with its longshore workers’ union, which went on strike Saturday morning.

While any prolonged strike at the West Coast could snarl many of Canada’s supply chains, longshore work at port grain terminals at Vancouver and Prince Rupert is not affected. The Canada Labour Code requires that loading or movement of grain vessels continue during any such work stoppage. The association and workers’ union also confirmed last Friday that service to cruise ships at the West Coast would not be affected.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU Canada), in a separate statement Tuesday, said it received a message Monday from federal mediators that the BCMEA had “walked away from the table.”

The BCMEA, which represents 49 employers at B.C.’s waterfront, such as ship owners and agents, stevedores and container and cruise ship terminal operators, said Monday it “has gone as far as possible on core issues” in talks, but the union “seems to have entrenched their positions.”

The ILWU and BCMEA had been in talks with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) since March 28.

The employers’ group said Monday the union “is attempting to aggressively expand their scope and re-define Regular Maintenance Work far beyond what is set out in the industry-wide agreement, which has been legally well established for decades.”

Under their collective agreement, which expired March 31, the union “exclusively supplies the labour force” but “has been consistently unable to fulfill the trades work they have jurisdiction over.”

Also, the BCMEA described the union’s proposals for compensation as “unreasonable, and well outside the established norm of union settlements in Canada.”

ILWU Canada, in a separate statement Monday, said the BCMEA “has accused the union of trying to expand its scope of work beyond regular maintenance.” Rather, the union said, it “has been raising the issue of the rampant contracting out of our maintenance work for years” and its focus in bargaining “has been to stop the erosion of jurisdiction and the extensive use of contractors.”

As for compensation, the union said it “did not take the position that gorging on massive profits was unreasonable, but we did take the position that it is reasonable for the workers that helped to achieve those record profits in the first place to have a fair and equitable share of them.”

The union said it also “hope(s) that the association is not hiding behind the threat of back-to-work legislation and binding arbitration to avoid engaging in bargaining with the union.”

Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan, in a separate tweet Tuesday, said he “encourage(s) both parties to immediately return to the bargaining table and remain there until a deal is reached.”

Collective bargaining, he said, “is hard work but it’s how the best, most resilient deals are made.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU Canada) on Wednesday morning served the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) with 72 hours’ strike notice, which would see strike action begin Saturday at 8 a.m. PT.

The BCMEA — which represents 49 employers at B.C.’s waterfront, such as ship owners and agents, stevedores and container and cruise ship terminal operators — emphasized in its statement Wednesday that any work stoppage “will not impact employees required to service grain vessels” as per the Canada Labour Code.

Under section 87.7 (1) of the Code, longshore workers “shall continue to provide the services they normally provide to ensure the tie-up, let-go and loading of grain vessels at licensed terminal and transfer elevators, and the movement of the grain vessels in and out of a port.”

Exports of grains, oilseeds and related byproducts through licensed elevators at Vancouver and Prince Rupert totalled 31.51 million tonnes in 2020-21, and were cut by drought to 17.55 million tonnes in 2021-22.

The ILWU, in a separate statement Wednesday, said its bargaining committee “has run out options at the bargaining table because the BCMEA and their member employers have refused to negotiate on the main issues.”

Those issues, the union said, include protection for its members against job losses caused by contracting-out and port automation, and against “record-high inflation and skyrocketing cost of living.”

Port employers, the union said, “have repaid our hard work and dedication with demands for major concessions. Their only objective is to take away rights and conditions from longshore workers after having gorged themselves on record profits during the pandemic.”

The ILWU and BCMEA have been in talks with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) since March 28, when the union filed a notice of dispute, the BCMEA said.

The employer association said it has since put forward “multiple proposals and positions in good faith, with the objective of making progress and achieving a fair deal at the table.” Talks are still scheduled to continue between the parties with FMCS on Thursday, BCMEA added.

The BCMEA said it’s also “open to any solution that brings both parties to a balanced agreement.” For one, it proposed binding mediation and arbitration, but added that the ILWU has so far “declined” that proposal.

Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a separate statement Wednesday that the FMCS will “keep supporting negotiations until an agreement is reached.”

All parties, the ministers said, understand “what is at stake for Canadians and our supply chains,” adding that port facilities and workers “are responsible for moving goods both nationally and internationally, and industries and consumers would feel the effects of a work stoppage.”

The ministers, in their statement, did not mention back-to-work legislation as an option to prevent a strike, saying instead that they “support the collective bargaining process because the best deals are made at the bargaining table.” The House of Commons adjourned for the summer on Wednesday last week.

The ministers said they “strongly encourage the parties to get back to the bargaining table and work together to reach an agreement.”

The ILWU’s previous contract dispute with port employers ended in a deal on May 30, 2019 following a BCMEA lockout that lasted just a few hours. –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The federal Liberal government said Sunday it would introduce special legislation to end the strike at the Port of Montreal, hoping to stop it from hurting the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unionized workers, in talks for a new contract since 2018, started a partial strike last week and warned they were prepared to walk off the job completely to protest changes to their work schedule.

The centre-left minority Liberal government needs the support of one opposition party to push through the legislation. The left-leaning New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois both said they would not support it.

The official opposition Conservatives, who have generally supported the idea of forcing an end to strikes in key industries, said they would study the law before deciding.

Both sides said they were meeting on Monday with a federal mediator.

The 1,125 longshore workers, represented by the Syndicat des debardeurs du port de Montreal (CUPE Local 375), had already refused to work weekends and nights after rejecting an offer in March from the Maritime Employers Association.

“A labour stoppage would not only prevent goods from passing through the port but would also create congestion at other ports,” said Perrin Beatty, chief executive of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

The Montreal Port Authority said it handles $275 million worth of goods daily.

“This strike is going to have massive detrimental effects on the Canadian agricultural sector,” said Dwight Gerling, president of DG Global, a major shipper of soybeans.

Bulk grain exports through the port would not be affected under the federal Labour Code, but the strike is expected to affect exports of containerized crops — and imports of crop inputs such as fertilizer.

The dockworkers’ last strike in August 2020 lasted 19 days and had a ripple effect on supply chains.

— Reporting for Reuters by Allison Lampert in Montreal; additional reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and David Ljunggren in Ottawa. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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The Syndicat des debardeurs du port de Montreal (CUPE Local 375) said Friday its members, who have been striking on weekends and refusing weekday overtime since April 13, will begin a “general unlimited strike” at 7 a.m. ET on Monday.

Given the union’s ongoing weekend strikes, however, the full-time strike technically begins Saturday, the Montreal Port Authority said Friday in a separate release.

“This new work stoppage hinders the key role that port operations play in the economic recovery and will have a significant and very concrete impact on the population and SMEs (small/mid-size enterprises) here,” port authority CEO Martin Imbleau said.

“We’re talking about raw materials for our factories, computers for working from home and fresh exotic fruits that can no longer get to our docks, and maple syrup and pork from Quebec producers that can no longer be distributed around the world via the Port of Montreal. So, it’s urgent that the two parties come to an agreement.”

Fertilizer Canada CEO Karen Proud, in a separate release Friday, said the expanded strike “threatens food security at a critical juncture” as fertilizers enter Canada at the port for planting season in Eastern and Atlantic Canada.

“If this strike is allowed to occur, up to one million acres in Eastern Canada may go unfertilized just next week,” the organization said.

“We don’t want to hurt the Montreal economy. However, we do want to exercise our fundamental right to bargain collectively,” CUPE 375 spokesperson Michel Murray said in a separate release.

The union, in its release, said that while the parties were still negotiating, the Maritime Employers Association (MEA), which represents longshore workers’ employers, announced Thursday it would make changes to the longshore workers’ schedules starting next Monday.

“This was the second time in a week that the MEA changed the longshore workers’ working conditions,” CUPE 375 said. “These actions are worsening the conflict instead of resolving it.”

The MEA said via Twitter on Friday that “there has not been a single day of negotiations since April 15” and it’s “still waiting for a response from the union regarding the two counterproposals submitted through the mediators” on that date.

The MEA noted Friday it had received another notice of meeting that day from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. “The meeting will take place on Monday, and we will be at the table,” the association tweeted.

The port authority noted liquid bulk handling, Oceanex service at its Bickerdike Terminal and its Viterra bulk grain terminal “will not be affected by this situation.”

The federal Labour Code calls for port workers during a strike or lockout to “continue to provide the services they normally provide” for loading, tie-up, let-go and movement of bulk grain vessels in and out of port.

Container traffic

But a strike would affect traffic through Montreal’s container terminals, such as its CanEst Transit terminal devoted to storage, cleaning, sifting, packing and loading of agricultural products.

The CanEst terminal, whose ownership group includes Quebec ag co-operative Sollio and Regina pulse and durum processor AGT, loads about 200 containers per day.

Pulse Canada and several other crops sector groups have previously gone public calling for federal intervention to ward off a work stoppage, saying the port at full operation sees over $880 million in containerized ag economic activity per year.

Fertilizer Canada on Friday also called on the federal government to “immediately implement back-to-work legislation” at the port, then set up “a long-term action plan to prevent future labour disputes in services that are essential to Canada’s food chain, as well as economic health and stability.”

“If the (MEA) doesn’t want a strike, all it has to do is let up on its pressure tactics and the union will do likewise. No overtime strike. No weekend strike. It’s straightforward. We want to return to the bargaining table,” CUPE’s Murray said Friday.

CUPE 375’s previous collective agreement at the port expired in December 2018, the union said, and talks with the MEA since “have bogged down on the issues of wages and life-work balance.”

For its part, the port employers’ group said via Twitter that “every decision made by the MEA is made with the aim of protecting the fluidity of the supply chain, meaning the imports and exports of our (SMEs).” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Syndicat des debardeurs du port de Montreal (SCFP/CUPE Local 375) said Saturday they had filed 72 hours’ strike notice, to take effect Tuesday — a move they said is in response to a lockout notice served Friday, also effective Tuesday, from their employers’ association.

The lockout notice came “after a good week of negotiations where the work was going well,” CUPE representative Michel Murray said Saturday in a release.

The union and the Association des employeurs maritimes (AEM), which represents port employers, said in separate statements Monday on Facebook they have been called to separate meetings Tuesday by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and would attend.

Reuters on Monday quoted a representative for federal Labour Minister Filomena Tassi as saying while the government believes a negotiated agreement is the best option for all parties, “we are actively examining all options as the situation evolves.”

The union said Saturday its partial strike means that, starting Tuesday, its member workers won’t take any overtime work beyond their regular eight-hour shifts, and will be on strike Saturdays and Sundays indefinitely.

The longshore workers would continue regular day, evening and night shifts from Monday to Friday, the union said.

Thus, Murray said, “we put pressure on the employer without much disturbing customers who are waiting for their merchandise.”

A strike wouldn’t affect bulk grain traffic at Montreal, which runs through Viterra’s 262,000-tonne capacity grain terminal. The federal Labour Code calls for port workers during a strike or lockout to “continue to provide the services they normally provide” for loading, tie-up, let-go and movement of grain vessels in and out of port.

However, a strike would affect traffic through Montreal’s container terminals — and those include the CanEst Transit terminal, devoted to storage, cleaning, sifting, packing and loading of agricultural products.

The CanEst terminal, whose ownership group includes Quebec ag co-operative Sollio and Regina pulse and durum processor AGT, loads about 200 containers per day.

“Demand for goods is at an all-time high, and yet port traffic is dropping,” pulse industry group Pulse Canada said on Twitter Monday. “The recent uncertainty is just the tipping point for further damage to (Canadian agriculture).”

Pulse Canada and several crops sector groups — including the Canadian Special Crops Association, Soy Canada, Cereals Canada, the Prairie Oat Growers Association, Western Grain Elevator Association and others — have previously stated their case for federal intervention.

The Port of Montreal, when fully open, sees over $880 million in containerized ag economic activity per year, they said.

The port’s unionized longshore workers’ previous collective agreement expired at the end of December 2018; the union has described the main sticking point in talks as worker scheduling as it relates to “work/life balance.”

The port has since seen intermittent work stoppages plus a 10-day strike last August, halted by a mediated truce that expired March 20.

The parties said in August they had a “mutual agreement” in which they’d be able to turn to arbitration at the end of the truce if “certain points remain in dispute.”

Ag groups aren’t alone in calling for federal intervention. Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) said Monday they want Ottawa to “ensure service continuity” at the port.

“Just the threat of a work stoppage at the port caused an 11 per cent decrease in activity this past month alone,” the association said in a release.

“Some manufacturers have had to redirect their containers to the Port of Halifax, incurring millions in additional costs every week. Industry will have to absorb these costs and delays, and it will ultimately hurt consumers,” CME CEO Dennis Darby said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The six-day blockage of the Suez Canal by the grounded container ship Ever Given caused a major backup of container ships, tankers and other shipping vessels that’s expected to take days to sort out. With many Canadian pulse exports going to Asia and Africa, this type of disruption would cause a domino effect back home.

“It would definitely impact the transit time of the goods arriving to the country of destination,” Elyce Simpson Fraser, senior vice-president of Simpson Seeds Ltd. at Moose Jaw, Sask., said.

Before the Suez Canal blockage, she added, Canadian pulse exports were already facing difficulties due to “Egypt’s blind lack of willingness” to carry agriculture goods during the pandemic.

Difficulties elsewhere include delays, backlogs, cancelled vessels and a lack of empty shipping containers. The burden of additional costs to ship cargoes such as pulses will then be placed on growers.

“We can’t consistently supply cargo to the markets and it’s causing a lot of stress and cash flow situations along the entire supply chain,” Simpson Fraser said.

“It’s really becoming cost-prohibitive and the market is having to deal with these increased costs on top of these delays and we don’t see this ending for another 12 months.”

To make matters worse, an ongoing labour dispute at the Port of Montreal is already impacting shipments. Longshore workers on March 22 voted to reject their employers’ offer but have not yet submitted a strike notice.

That uncertainty has caused volume at the port to drop by nearly two per cent since the start of 2021 and shipments are being diverted away from the port.

Bulk grain vessels would continue to be loaded and served at Montreal in the event of a strike as per the federal Labour Code, but movement of containerized ag products such as pulse crops would be affected.

“The railways in Regina are returning containers… So we’re stuck with product on plant and left with very expensive options to move our cargo a different way, all of which are not necessarily accepted by buyers,” Simpson Fraser said.

“I encourage anyone who is in touch with their local representative in their constituency to put pressure on the (federal) government to step in, because we cannot afford to have a strike or shutdown at that port.”

— Adam Peleshaty reports for MarketsFarm from Stonewall, Man.

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