8 July (Lloyd's list) - A CANADIAN labour tribunal lifted the threat of imminent disruption on the country’s west coast after a rift between labour and port employers escalated over the weekend, with the former planning a strike on Monday afternoon and the latter threatening a coastwide lockout.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (Canada) Local 514, comprised of ship and dock foremen, issued a 72-hour strike notice on Friday for DP World’s Centerm terminal in Vancouver, British Columbia, which was set to begin at 1630 hrs local time on Monday, July 7.

On Saturday, the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association, representing management, requested “urgent interim intervention” from the Canada Industrial Relational Board, and threatened a coastwide lockout should the union be allowed to carry out the strike.

The board discussed the case on Sunday and determined that ILWU Local 514 acted in bad faith and instructed the union to rescind the strike notice.

“After consideration of the parties’ submissions filed in these matters, the board has determined that the union has declared or authorised a strike in contravention of the [Canada Labour] Code,” chairperson Ginette Brazeau explained in the decision.

“More specifically, the board finds that, in the circumstances of this case, the union failed to bargain in good faith when it conducted a strike vote amongst the employees of only one member employer of the BCMEA and issued a strike notice based on that strike vote.”

The BCMEA welcomed the decision on Sunday and rescinded its industry-wide lockout notice.

The union has been approached for comment.

The weekend’s escalation comes after months of negotiations between ILWU Local 514 and the BCMEA, and a year after thousands of ILWU Canada workers — who are covered by a separate contract to Local 514 –— went on strike that paralysed Canada’s west coast ports.

ILWU Local 514 rejected a “final offer” from BCMEA in June, with 99% of longshore foremen voting against it. One of the key issues, according to the union, is that DP World notified it in December that it was “unilaterally” planning to introduce automation with respect to container handling at Centerm terminal’s intermodal rail yard.

“Prior to the introduction of the automation, Dubai Ports World negotiated a manning agreement with ILWU Local 500, but refused to do so directly with Local 514,” ILWU Local 514 president Frank Morena said in a statement announcing the vote’s results.

“Following this refusal, the union tabled a manning proposal during collective bargaining with the BCMEA, which continued to refuse to negotiate a meaningful manning proposal.”

In contrast, Global Containers Terminal (GCT), another BCMEA member, “successfully negotiated a manning agreement with the Union years ago when it introduced automation,” Moreno said.

Another significant issue to the union was improvement to retiring allowances and benefits.

The 730 foremen of ILWU Local 514 are covered by a different contract than the 7,400 longshore workers of ILWU Canada. A four-year contract between the BCMEA and the ILWU Canada (excluding Local 514) was agreed last summer, but the process was far from smooth, and required intervention from the Canadian government and the CIRB.

The dockworkers went on strike on July 1 of last year, with the union’s negotiating team agreeing on July 13 to a tentative agreement that was devised by federal mediators. But the union’s caucus rejected the agreement on July 19, with a second tentative deal was rejected several days after. Third time proved to be a charm — after Canada’s government referred the labour dispute to the CIRB — and a new four-year deal was ratified in August.