Lockout continues as negotiations for British Columbia port workers fall apart

Unlike the shutdown that shut down container imports on Canada’s west coast, contract talks held over the weekend between British Columbia maritime employers and their longshore union were over before they began.

The British Columbia Maritime Employers Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 met separately Saturday with a union arbitrator in an effort to resolve a contract dispute involving 700 union bosses at the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert.

Vancouver is Canada’s top containerized import gateway.

“[Saturday] this evening the BCMEA and ILWU Local 514 met with the assistance of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) in Vancouver,” the employers wrote on their website. “Parties have met separately with FMCS and, according to the discussions that have taken place, no progress has been made. On that basis, FMCS concluded the arbitration, and no further meetings have been scheduled.”

Container Lines and Terminals represented by BCMEA on November 4th locked out 700 people represented by ILWU Local 514 after the union rejected the employers’ final contract.

Longshoremen, also called longshoremen, supervise other workers and manage loading operations at port facilities. Apart from wages and other contract issues, the union is pushing for the establishment of machines that work at the ports.

The lockout has halted an estimated $800 million in trade that moves through British Columbia’s ports each day, and comes at the same time as a strike by union dock workers at the Port of Montreal, Canada’s second-busiest facility.

While carriers are initially waiting for their ships, liner operators are expected to divert services to Seattle-Tacoma and other West Coast ports as the shutdown continues.

Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

Related entries:

Lockout looms over labor dispute at Montreal port

East Coast port contract negotiations will resume

Lockout sells many container ships out of western Canadian ports

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