Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan says the federal cabinet is looking to avoid future labour disruptions following the
end to the B.C port strike last week, which clogged national supply chains for about two weeks and left thousands of businesses across the country calling on Ottawa to wade into the dispute.
“The scale of this disruption has been significant,” said Mr. O'Regan and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra in a joint
statement on July 13.
“The extent of it has shown just how important the relationship between industry and labour is to our national interest. Our supply chains and our economy depend on it. We do not want to be back here again.”
Over 7,400 B.C. port workers represented by International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU)
began striking on July 1 after previous federally regulated talks between ILWU and the BC Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA), which represents 49 of B.C.’s private-sector waterfront employers, failed to yield a resolution on a new labour agreement.
ILWU and the BCMEA had been negotiating on the matter since February in an attempt to renew the industry-wide collective agreement, which expired this past March.
The port workers’ strike lasted until July 13, during which time shipments both in and out of around 30 B.C. ports came to a halt.
The BCMEA said in a
statement on July 13 that it had reached a “tentative agreement on a new four-year deal with” ILWU, which is subject to ratification by both sides.
“Please stay tuned for further operational updates,” the BCMEA said.
Supply-Chain Disruptions
The resolution came shortly after Mr. O'Regan
said the BCMEA and ILWU were not far enough apart in their disagreements to justify prolonged labour and supply-chain disruptions.
“Deals like this, made between parties at the collective bargaining table, are the best way to prevent that,” he and Mr. Alghabra said in their joint
statement on July 13. “They are the best way to preserve the long-term stability of Canada’s economy. But we do not want to be back here again.”
Business groups across Canada affected by the strike’s supply-chain disruptions had been calling on Ottawa during the two-week strike to force a resolution between ILWU and the BCMEA by introducing back-to-work legislation.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB)
said in a
statement on July 11 that the B.C. port strike had negatively affected over half of its
97,000 member businesses across the country.
“We’re hearing from members across the country who are worried about missing critical sales, delayed production or orders or an inability to get their products to export markets because of the strike,” CFIB president Dan Kelly said at the time.
The Canadian National Railway Co.’s revenue ton miles—a key industry metric used to gauge income and freight volume—fell 60 percent in the strike’s first week alone, while the figured dropped by 45 percent at Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd.
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
