4 July 2023 (Lloyd's List) - THE Canadian chapter of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has blamed the British Columbia Maritime Employers’ Association of backing out of talks to resolve the strikes at Canada’s west coast ports.
“While the union was at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service waiting for a response from the employer, we received a message from the mediators that the BCMEA walked away from the table,” said ILWU Canada president Rob Ashton.
The BCMEA describes the step as a “pause” that would act as a reset in negotiations. “Regrettably, ILWU Canada has not indicated a willingness to modify their position,” it said in a statement.
Both sides said they had indicated a willingness to return to the table, but with tempers frayed there seems little hope of an immediate return to talks. The key issue holding back a resolution is the role of outside labour being used for equipment maintenance.
“The BCMEA is accusing the union of attempting to aggressively expand on its jurisdiction over regular maintenance work,” Ashton said. “This is completely false and evidence that the association is deaf to the real and legitimate concerns of the union.”
The ILWU claims its jurisdiction in maintenance has been eroded by employers using third-party contractors. “This is not an issue of cost for the direct employers because they already pay for this work to be done by maintenance contracting companies,” Ashton said. “In fact, using ILWU skilled trades employees will be more cost effective and will result in a higher quality of work because of their industry experience and competency.”
But the employers regard the union’s demand as an “aggressive” expansion of the scope and an attempt to redefine regular maintenance. “Changing this definition would result in immediate and significant impacts to terminal operation,” the BCMEA said.
Employers also claim the union has been unable to fulfil the work requirements over which they have jurisdiction. “In the last year, there were significant shortages in key trades work,” the BCMEA said. “For example, in Vancouver, up to 25% of specific jobs were left unfilled as labour was not sufficiently supplied. On average, of the trades work that the ILWU Canada is exclusively entitled to supply in Vancouver, 17% of jobs went unfilled last year.” This had immediate effects on terminal productivity as regular maintenance of cargo-moving equipment went unaddressed or was delayed, it added.
But Ashton countered that there was no issue with the union being able to supply skilled trades. “It is an unwillingness of the employers to properly utilise our trades workers,” he said.
“We already have sufficient numbers of registered trades workers to meet the demands of the industry and we continue to recruit more.” He said employers refused to utilise or train workers as required, but the BCMEA said employers had budgeted C$42.5m for investment in training and upskilling in 2023.
The union wants to hold direct talks with the heads of the main terminal operating companies and has supported calls for a return to negotiations. “If the association will not negotiate, we call on the member employers to negotiate directly with the union,” Ashton said. “A negotiated settlement is possible, and we are capable of getting the job done.”
The BCMEA said its preference was to negotiate a “fair and balanced” deal in order to restore stability to the supply chain. “Strike action has shut down operations at the vast majority of British Columbia’s marine terminals for 11 consecutive shifts, damaging supply chains across the country and immediately impacting Canadians and businesses,” it said.
