The federal Labor Minister on Tuesday ordered an end to work stoppages at Canada’s largest ports in British Columbia and Quebec, imposing “final and binding arbitration” on the parties. At least one union said it will challenge the order.
Dockworkers at Canada’s busiest ports are locked out after unions and employers failed to reach an agreement at the table. Montreal port workers took part in picketing Sunday night, joining their peers already blocked at British Columbia ports.
The labor action has blocked the flow of goods worth more than $1.2 billion that circulate through those channels daily.
Steve MacKinnon told reporters Tuesday that despite the parties returning to the table in recent days, there has been little progress in negotiations.
It said it has directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to “order that all operations and duties at the ports resume and assist the parties in resolving their collective agreements by imposing final and binding arbitration.”
MacKinnon said he expected work to resume in a “matter of days.”
The order to restart operations includes workers at the ports of British Columbia and Montreal, as well as stevedores working at the port of Quebec, who have been blocked for more than two years.
MacKinnon cited the impact on Canada’s economy, its reputation as a reliable trading partner and on port-related jobs as justification for the move.
“We depend on the movement of goods through our ports. “If these work stoppages continue, the impacts will only worsen and our well-earned reputation for reliability will be put at risk,” he said.
“Canadians…have a limited tolerance for economic self-harm,” MacKinnon added.
The Montreal Maritime Employers Association said in a statement Tuesday that it “welcomes” MacKinnon’s decision to impose binding arbitration. On the West Coast, the BCMEA said in a statement that it will follow the CIRB’s guidance.
BC’s longshore workers’ union, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Ship & Dock Foremen Local 514, said it will challenge the government’s order, calling the move an insult to both the union and workers’ bargaining rights.
The Quebec section of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the port of Montreal’s nearly 1,200 dockworkers, denounced the government’s decision, calling it a “dark day for workers’ rights.”
“The right to collective bargaining is a constitutional right,” the union said in a press release in French.
Second instance of binding arbitration this year
This is the second time in a matter of months that the Liberal government has imposed binding arbitration to end a work stoppage; He last used such powers to end a shutdown at Canada’s two largest rail companies in August.
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The Teamsters union, which represents CN Rail and CPKC workers, filed a lawsuit against the government to appeal the decision to end that work stoppage. The matter is still before the courts.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh criticized the Liberal government’s actions in a statement Tuesday. He accused Justin Trudeau and his party of giving in to “corporate greed” and stripping unions of power.
“Canadians will pay for Trudeau’s anti-worker attack,” Singh said. “Back-to-work orders suppress wages for all Canadians, so billionaires get richer and the rest of Canadians are left even further behind. And especially in the case of port negotiations, Trudeau’s order puts good Canadian jobs at risk.”
Singh added that “the only place to get a fair deal is at the negotiating table.”
MacKinnon said he understands there will be debate over the decision to use binding arbitration again so soon, but added that he would “welcome that debate.”
He reiterated that the Liberal government believes the best collective bargaining agreements are reached at the table, but said federal mediators told him in recent days there was no momentum to reach an agreement at any of the ports.
At that point, with the magnitude of the economic impact at risk, MacKinnon said, “any responsible government” would intervene.
“As economic losses threaten the country and begin to mount, it is up to the government to ensure a fair deal is reached,” MacKinnon said.
He argued that “arbitration leads to fair agreements,” although he acknowledged that “they may not be as durable as those reached at the negotiating table.”
But he said the action would be enough “for us to move forward with the economic life of this country and avoid layoffs and other carnage in many of our business sectors and for workers and their families.”
The Vancouver Board of Trade said in a statement Tuesday that provincial port closures had so far directly affected goods worth an estimated $6.1 billion, with ripple effects across the country.
Pascal Chan, senior director of transportation, infrastructure and construction at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, tells Global News that the British Columbia and Montreal port closures followed wave after wave of disruptions to Canadian supply chains, already either due to labor actions or extreme weather conditions. The simultaneous closure of Canada’s two largest ports presented a “perfect storm” for Canadian businesses, he says.
“With these repeated closures, we are not demonstrating that we are effectively announcing that Canada is closed to the public. In that situation, we put Canadian contracts at risk, which puts Canadian businesses and Canadian jobs at risk,” Chan says.
Experts who spoke to Global News on Monday said small and medium-sized businesses would likely be hardest hit by port closures, as larger corporations have more flexibility in their supply chains.
Jasmin Guenette, vice-president of national affairs for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said in a statement Tuesday that the small business group was “relieved” that the disruptions were moving toward a resolution, but also called on the federal government to declare port essential workers to avoid future impasses.
“A prolonged work stoppage has detrimental consequences for the entire economy that are disproportionate to the benefit that any of the parties involved can obtain,” he said.
Liberals claim a position “in favor of workers”
Workers in Montreal have been trying to resolve scheduling and job security issues, as well as secure better wages to catch up with the rising cost of living. British Columbia dockworkers are also pushing for a pay increase, as well as measures to ensure minimum staffing levels amid the growing adoption of autonomous technology at ports.
MacKinnon argued to reporters that his intervention in the disputes was, in fact, “pro-worker,” as it provides stability for Canadians whose careers depend on the country’s transportation sector.
Adam King, a professor of labor studies at the University of Manitoba, tells Global News it’s a “ridiculous position.”
“It takes a certain degree of mental gymnastics to characterize interference in collective bargaining as a pro-worker position,” he says.
Even if work hours are reduced or products on shelves are delayed, King says there is “no evidence” that work disruptions will result in “significant layoffs.”
“The economy is a dynamic machine, and a particular strike or work stoppage is not going to produce unemployment in a concentrated way,” he says.
The decision to unilaterally impose binding arbitration, rather than introduce back-to-work legislation in Parliament, comes as the House of Commons remains in a procedural deadlock, limiting the minority Liberal government’s ability to pass some bill.
MacKinnon said his powers to order the CIRB to propose binding arbitration stem from section 107 of the Canada Labor Code.
But King says back-to-work legislation may, in fact, have been preferable to this course of action, because it is at least subject to debate in the House.
Instead, it calls binding arbitration “highly undemocratic” and contrary to Canadians’ constitutionally protected rights to strike.
It also sets a precedent that allows employers to only half-engage with unions at the bargaining table, rather than relying on the government to step in and impose an agreement, King argues.
“If employers expect the government to step in and bail them out, when negotiations get tough, they won’t be taken seriously,” King says. “And if the government really wants to address that problem, it can start by looking in the mirror.”
MacKinnon on Tuesday pointed to successful negotiations earlier this year with Air Canada and its pilots and between grain terminal operators and their workers earlier this year as some examples of where employers and unions were continuing to reach agreements without the need for direct intervention by the federal government.
– with files from Jillian Piper, Touria Izri and Sean Boynton of Global News and Rosa Saba of The Canadian Press
