News / Tentative labour deal ends paralysis of St Lawrence Seaway

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Cargo traffic was set to resume on the St Lawrence Seaway this morning, ending a seven-day stand-off between workers and St Lawrence Seaway Management Corp (SLSMC).

More than 360 workers in Ontario and Quebec walked out after midnight on 22 October, after contract negotiations between the Canfor union and SLSMC failed to reach an agreement.

According to Canfor, the two sides had been “1,000 nautical miles apart” on remuneration, the main negotiation stumbling block.

Unifor said the tentative new agreement would be put to members for a vote in the coming days, but did not disclose any details, saying these would be given to members first.

SLSMC declared yesterday evening that it would implement its recovery programme immediately and ships would start to move through the seaway this morning, with its employees back on the job at 7am.

The strike had paralysed shipping on the St Lawrence Seaway, as no one was available to operate the 13 locks between Lake Erie and Montreal. According to SLSMC, more than 100 vessels have been trapped outside the waterway linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic over the past week.

Last year, 36.2m tonnes of cargo, worth $16.7bn, moved through the seaway, with grain and steel making up the bulk of the traffic, alongside breakbulk and project cargo, such as wind energy components moving to the prairies, many transferring to rail at the port of Duluth.

In May, Dutch carrier Spliethoff started a monthly liner service between Duluth and Antwerp for project cargo and containers to the US, and grain and containers to Europe. It was the second regular container service linking the Great Lakes with Europe and markets beyond. Duluth Port handles about 10,000 teu a year.

During the dispute, the port of Cleveland wrote to the Canadian ministers of transport and labour as well as US transportation secretary Buttigieg, urging them to resolve the impasse, followed by a growing number of interest groups warning of imminent repercussions if the stand-off continued.

The shutdown occurred at a critical time for farmers in the Midwest, particularly grain exporters, as the grain shipping season was in full swing. The port of Thunder Bay warned last week that a prolonged strike would overwhelm grain storage space and force shippers to look for other ways to move their grain.

However, the Canadian government had resisted calls for legislative intervention in labour disputes in the rail industry and at the west coast ports, but federal ministers did get involved in negotiations, clearly pushing for resolution in both cases. According to one report, the resumption of negotiations between Unifor and SLSMC on Friday came after a strong push from Ottawa.

“We have a deal,” tweeted labour minister Seamus O’Regan, thanking both parties and federal mediators for their “commitment to the negotiating table”.