By Robb M. Stewart
OTTAWA -- The movement of cargo through Canada's second-largest seaport halted late Sunday after dockworkers at the Port of Montreal rejected a revised pay offer from employers, heightening stresses on trade as talks aimed at reopening ports on the country's West Coast faltered.
The Maritime Employers Association, which represents companies operating at the Port of Montreal, said it had no choice but to declare a lockout Sunday evening in response to the rejection of a final offer tabled last week.
The association repeated a call on the federal government to intervene to break the impasse as quickly as possible, echoing similar requests from business organizations across the country worried about the hit to the economy and Canada's reputation as a reliable trade partner from labor stoppages at the two busiest ports in the country.
The employers group said it remained willing to collaborate on any new initiatives that may be proposed by Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon to reach a satisfactory agreement. MacKinnon earlier in the week said both the talks in Montreal, as well as separate negotiations to the west, were progressing at an insufficient pace.
The decision to push ahead with a lockout came after the longshore union's roughly 1,200 members overwhelmingly rejected the employers' fresh offer. The employers made the fresh offer to dockworkers Thursday with the warning they would invoke a lockout if a deal wasn't agreed by late Sunday.
An overwhelming majority of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local 375's 1,200 members who voted rejected the offer in a secret ballot, the union said.
"The hostile offer was rejected because the employer refused to negotiate. Nothing in the offer reflects the union's demands. If the MEA had respected the collective bargaining processes, solutions would have been found and a conflict at the port of Montreal would have been avoided," said Michel Murray, union adviser at the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
The lockout heightens the disruption Canadian trade now faces, and risks spilling over into the U.S.
The Maritime Employers Association estimates close to 400 million Canadian dollars, the equivalent of about $287 million, in goods pass through the Port of Montreal each day. A shutdown at ports along the coast of British Columbia, which collectively are responsible for an estimate C$800 million a day in trade shows no sign of movement.
The resumption of talks Saturday between employers at British Columbia ports and the union representing more than 700 supervisors failed to make headway, meaning a lockout that has suspended the movement of cargo continues. The two sides met separately with federal negotiators with no progress, and no further meetings are scheduled.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Ship & Dock Foremen local 514 accused the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association of cutting off the federally mediated talks and attempting to impose significant concessions on union members. The union called on the individual employers running the terminals represented by the association to return to the bargaining table to work on a new collective agreement for supervisors.
The turmoil at Canada's ports, including at the country's biggest trade gateway in Vancouver on the West Coast, will spill over into the U.S., said John Lash, vice president of product strategy at supply chain platform e2open.
The collective agreement for unionized supervisors in British Columbia expired at the end of March 2023, and negotiations to reach a fresh deal have repeatedly failed. In Montreal, efforts to agree on a new collective deal for workers began more than 13 months ago.
Supply-chain analytics firm Everstream Analytics said that with the shutdowns, shippers are likely to divert goods to U.S. coastal ports, which will increase stresses on logistics, including possible trucker shortages and cargo delivery delays and add to costs. It noted Vancouver is a critical entry point for perishable food items including dairy, produce and seafood, as well as manufactured goods like automotive components, but diversions are likely to mean cargo processing backlogs at ports such as Seattle, Oakland, and even farther south like Los Angeles-Long Beach.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 10, 2024 22:12 ET (03:12 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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