A lockout at the Port of Montreal on Monday widened transportation disruptions in Canada, coming on the heels of a separate lockout in Vancouver and other Pacific coast ports.
One official warned that prolonged labour unrest at the nation’s two largest ports in Montreal and Vancouver risked “severe economic consequences.”
Some 1,200 dockworkers at the Port of Montreal were denied entry to the work site after their union rejected the latest contract offer.
Workers at the Port of Vancouver and other Pacific ports, meanwhile, on Monday marked one week since being locked out in a separate labour dispute.
Coordinated effort or isolated incidents?
“When we look at what is happening, the lockout in Vancouver (and) the lockout in Montreal, we consider that it is a coordinated, planned attack in order to put pressure on the government to intervene,” Michel Murray, spokesman for the Canadian Union of Public Employees Longshoremen’s Union Local 375, said at a news conference in Montreal.
“If the Maritime Employers Association had respected the collective bargaining processes,” he said, “solutions would have been found and a conflict at the Port of Montreal would have been avoided.”
Ongoing strikes and failed negotiations
The Montreal dockworkers staged three partial strikes in Oct. as contract negotiations between the local longshoremen’s union and the Maritime Employers Association remained deadlocked.
On Sunday, they overwhelmingly rejected the employer’s latest offer, which Murray said was similar to past proposals with the addition of a few “cosmetic changes.”
The Maritime Employers Association reacted by locking out the Montreal dockworkers. The association also urged the federal labour minister to intervene “to resolve the impasse as quickly as possible.”
Impact on jobs and revenue
The head of the Montreal Port Authority, Julie Gascon, warned that “each day of the conflict drives ships further from Canadian docks and jeopardizes jobs and revenue for businesses.”
She pointed to dire impacts of the work stoppage on longshoremen but also on trucking and railway employees and maritime agents and pilots, and on businesses that rely on the maritime transportation of goods.
“This will inevitably set off a domino effect throughout the entire economy,” she said.
Widening economic impact
The Montreal and Vancouver ports handle hundreds of millions of dollars worth of goods each day.
The BC Maritime Employers Association last week shut down Canada’s Pacific coast ports, including the nation’s busiest port in Vancouver as well as ports in Nanaimo and Prince Rupert.
The move aimed to “facilitate a safe and orderly wind-down of operations” in light of “escalating and unpredictable strike action” by workers represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514, the BC Maritime Employers Association said in a statement.
The BC union had previously announced limited strikes.
