Minister’s tweet raises spectre of federal action as B.C. port workers vote down deal

While the statement did not say why members rejected the agreement, the union has repeatedly mentioned two key issues not addressed in the deal: The onset of automation in the port industry and the jurisdiction of maintenance work “aggressively eroded” by third-party contractors.

In a since-deleted Facebook post, ILWU Local 500 Vice President Rickey Baryer said maintenance work “will be a huge part” of longshore workers’ future, and the language in the deal did not preserve union members’ role in this job area.

“All I will say is that I pray that our members from all Locals see that the government forced a contract on us that is the beginning of the end of our very existence,” Baryer wrote in the post published before the union revealed its voting results.

Baryer, who said in the post he is on the union’s bargaining committee, declined to comment to The Canadian Press about the vote results.

In response to workers rejecting the deal, the BCMEA issued a statement saying it is now awaiting further direction from the federal government on the labour dispute, which triggered a 13-day strike earlier this month that paralyzed more than 30 port terminals and other sites in places including Canada’s busiest port in Vancouver.

The BCMEA said the rejected deal included a compounded wage increase of 19.2 per cent and a signing bonus of $1.48 per hour worked to be paid to each employee — which would have amounted to about $3,000 per full-time worker.

The employers also said the wage increase in the rejected agreement would have “potentially” boosted union longshore worker’s median annual wage from $136,000 to $162,000, not including pension and benefits.

“ILWU Canada’s inability to ratify a fair and balanced recommended tentative agreement has left Canadians, businesses and the entire supply chain in a perilous state that has cost billions and will further hurt affordability and increase costs for Canadians,” the BCMEA statement said.

The union had previously called the employer’s claims on compensation levels “exaggerated,” with Ashton saying a port worker “spends many years waiting on call to get one-off shifts at very short notice. As a result, he said pay is sporadic and supplementing income through other jobs is difficult given the irregular work schedule at ports.

Several Canadian political and business leaders had called for federal back to work legislation to end the dispute, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convened the government’s incident response group to discuss the matter, an occurrence typically reserved for moments of national crisis.

Business Council of Canada President and CEO Goldy Hyder renewed those calls after the latest vote results, urging the federal government to reconvene parliament to legislate an end to the dispute.

“The failure to ratify a mediated deal will harm workers and businesses from many sectors across Canada whose employment and income might be impacted, as well as all Canadian families who face rising prices,” Hyder said in a statement.

“Enough is enough.”

The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade echoed Hyder’s sentiments, saying the uncertainty of another possible work stoppage will increase the economic damage across several Canadian industries.

“An agreed-upon deal has now been rejected twice by the union,” GVBOT President and CEO Bridgitte Anderson said in the statement. “It is time for the federal government and opposition parties to intervene to ensure that our ports stay open, and we can avoid needlessly stoking inflation and affecting other union and non-union jobs.”

Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, however, said the better course of action is to get both sides of the dispute back to the negotiating table.

“Port workers in British Columbia are fighting for fairness; they want to know that they’ll have stability and a good wage so that they can continue supporting their families for years to come,” Singh said in a statement.

“We cannot lose sight of what is at stake for B.C. port workers, but also for all workers. Going to work to earn a living that feeds your family and puts a roof over your head is not too much to ask when CEOs are enjoying record profits.”

The B.C. port dispute process has been tumultuous since July 11, when O’Regan ordered a mediator to deliver terms of a tentative settlement agreement to stop strike action commenced on Canada Day.

The terms were then presented to both the union and the employers, with negotiators from both sides agreeing on the deal and O’Regan declaring “the strike is over” on Twitter.

Days later, the union’s leadership caucus voted down the terms without sending it to a full-membership vote, kicking off a brief resumption of strike action on July 18 before a Canada Industrial Relations Board decision the next day ruled the strike illegal without 72 hours of notice.

Workers returned to the job, with the union then issuing a strike notice only to rescind it on the same day, on July 19.

Union leadership announced on July 20 it would recommend the agreement to a full-membership vote, which took place on Thursday and Friday after unionwide meetings.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 29, 2023.

Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Minister’s tweet raises spectre of federal action as B.C. port workers vote down deal

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