News / Canada port dispute resolution may be on again, after early hours agreement

Labour disruption on Canada’s west coast may again be close to resolution, following a dramatic development in the early hours of today when a “tentative” agreement was reached.

A compromise solution secured by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) leadership was rejected by its membership on 22 July.

Today, the ILWU said it was “happy to announce that we have secured a negotiated tentative settlement with the BCMEA”.

After talks failed at the end of June, the ILWU called a strike for 1 July, which ended on 13 July when agreement was reached, brokered by a federal mediator at the instigation of federal labour minister Seamus O’Regan.

However, it was not endorsed by the ILWU’s caucus, resulting in a new strike announcement, which was stopped in its tracks by the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) which ruled that a renewed strike was illegal without a 72-hour advance notice. The ILWU served a notice within hours, only to withdraw it later on the same day. The ILWU caucus subsequently accepted the agreement and passed it to the members to vote, and a majority voted it down.

Concerns had been mounting that failure to reach a deal swiftly would open the door to another work stoppage at two of Canada’s top three ocean gateways.

ILWU Canada president Rob Ashton, on the union’s website, called on maritime employers to negotiate directly with the union instead of through employer association the BCMEA. It had expressed disappointment that the union had decided to reject a “good deal” and blasted the ILWU leadership for its handling of the negotiations and “erratic actions of the past month”.

Business interest groups were quick to call on Ottawa to step in and enforce a binding solution to forestall a resumption of the strike. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business blasted the union’s rejection of the brokered agreement as “irresponsible” and renewed its call for government intervention.

It said: “If the union issues another 72-hour strike notice, government will have to immediately introduce back-to-work legislation.”

Government has resisted calls to recall parliament from its summer recess to impose back-to-work legislation, but the prime minister convened Ottawa’s government incident response group to discuss the matter on 19 July – a step usually taken in times of national crisis.

Mr O’Regan had signalled that Ottawa’s patience may be running out and said he had directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board to determine if the workers’ rejection of the agreement meant a negotiated settlement was impossible.

“If the board determines that to be the case, I have directed them to either impose a new collective agreement on the parties or impose final binding arbitration to resolve outstanding terms of the collective agreement,” he declared.

The latest agreement, reached with the assistance of the industrial relations board, will be presented to ILWU members for another vote, although details of when have yet to be announced.