Port disputes: Ottawa applies a connection arrangement

“There is an end to the economic self-destruction that Canadians are willing to accept,” MacKinnon said at a news conference in Ottawa.

Successive lockouts have been announced by employers at shipyards in British Columbia, including those in Vancouver, as well as at the Port of Montreal, Canada’s two largest ports.

The Maritime Employers Association locked out the 1,200 dock workers at the Port of Montreal on Sunday night. The workers had just rejected the “final” offer they had been given.

Longshoremen have refused to do overtime since October 10. Also, around 320 of them were on a partial strike, affecting only two terminals of the Termont company.

The situation is similar in British Columbia, where the lockout began last week after management criticized ship and dock managers for going on strike in response to a final offer from workers. hire.

This is the third labor dispute to affect the country’s supply chains this year, after those affecting rail and air transport.

Last August, the nation’s two major railroads, CN and CPKC, locked out 9,300 Teamster train conductors and locomotive drivers after months of negotiations failed to produce a new collective agreement.

Minister MacKinnon then intervened and ordered the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to impose binding arbitration to avoid a complete breakdown of the country’s supply chain.

The quasi-judicial body immediately noted that Ottawa was thus setting a precedent, but that this direction was tantamount to an order issued by the minister using his “discretionary powers” under the Canada Labor Code . The Council considered that they had no room to move to refuse the direction in this case.

Union members and workers’ advocates criticized the move, saying it undermined workers’ bargaining power and bargaining rights.

Section 107 of the Canada Labor Code gives the Minister of Labor additional powers to take measures that he “thinks may promote good understanding in the world of work and to create conditions favorable to the resolution of disagreements or disputes arising there”, and may order the Canadian Industrial Relations Board “the measures that they must be considered”.

Parliament could also force him to return to work through legislation, which would be an exception to the normal way of negotiating labor relations under the Labor Code. However, the House of Commons is not due to resume work until next week, where observers expect the Tories to continue paralyzing it with obstructionist motions.

According to the Montreal Port Authority, almost $400 million in goods pass through the Port of Montreal every day. They generated economic benefits of 268 million.

The Port of Montreal is the main port in Eastern Canada. Its main competitors are the ports of the Eastern United States.