Picket lines have gone up at six grain terminals in Metro Vancouver as about 600 workers begin a strike.
Canada’s labour minister, meanwhile, says he spoke with both the employer and representatives of Grain Workers Union Local 333 on Monday, and they have agreed to resume contract negotiations alongside federal mediators.
Steven MacKinnon posted the message on the social media platform X, saying Canadian farmers had a “bumper crop” and they need to get it to market.
Union president Douglas Lea-Smith says the labour minister’s involvement is a positive step, and there is a meeting scheduled Wednesday between the union and the employer to try to resolve the “impasse” arising from bargaining so far.
Lea-Smith says the employer, the Vancouver Terminal Elevators Association, had not “meaningfully engaged” during a dozen days of bargaining ahead of further negotiations with help from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
A statement issued by the Shipping Federation of Canada over the weekend said the union and the association concluded conciliation with help from the federal service on Aug. 26, but could not come to an agreement on a new contract.
The affected operations include Viterra’s Cascadia and Pacific Terminals, Richardson International Terminal, Cargill Limited Terminal, G3 Terminal Vancouver and Alliance Grain Terminal, all located in Vancouver and North Vancouver.
The union has said it provided the employer with a “comprehensive package” last Thursday, but the next day, the association indicated it had no counter offer.
But Lea-Smith said the association released a “full proposal” directly to workers, sidestepping the union.
“They just walked right around us because they believe that we don’t represent our members, even though we’re elected by our members,” he said.
The major sticking point in the negotiations relates to time in lieu, he said.
“There are some minor monetary issues, but for the most part, it’s largely over earned time-off days, which we call lieu days,” he said.
Lea-Smith said the employer is trying to remove lieu days, and the strike action will continue in order to apply pressure at the bargaining table.
The lieu days stretch back to binding arbitration in 2002, when the workers moved to an round-the-clock operation, he said.
“Grain workers in 2002, on a pro rata basis, compared to today, earned more money than we do,” he said.
It’s the first time the union local has gone on strike since about 1970, he said.
