Second day of strike by workers at the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation

2023-10-24 02:25:57

The approximately 360 Unifor union members who work at the St. Lawrence Seaway were in their second day of strike on Monday, as the employer tries to obtain an exception to the strike for the transport of grain.

Maritime traffic in the corridor which connects Montreal to Niagara, passing through the locks, has been paralyzed since Sunday 12:01 a.m. This is a strategic corridor used by 4,000 ships annually. Members of the affected Unifor locals in Quebec and Ontario voted 99% in favor of the strike.

The employer, the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation, asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board — the equivalent of the federal labor court — to obtain an exemption for the transportation of grain. He thus invokes a little-known article of the Canada Labor Code, which stipulates that during a strike or a lockout, an employer in the longshoring sector or another sector of activity concerned and its employees “are required to maintain their activities related to the mooring and unpacking of grain vessels at approved terminal or transshipment facilities, as well as their loading, and their entry into and exit from a port.”

The large Unifor union, which is affiliated with the FTQ in Quebec, argues that this article of the Canada Labor Code refers to ports, terminal or transshipment facilities, but not to canals and locks like those of the seaway of the Saint Laurent.

The Management Corporation’s request has not yet been heard. Contacted regarding its intention to proceed with the hearing of the request and, if so, when, the Canada Industrial Relations Board had not yet responded at the time of writing.

Salaries are the main point in dispute. Unifor argues that its members are being hit hard by inflation and that since their work is of strategic importance to the Canadian economy, it must be recognized accordingly.

Trucking and business

In the meantime, the business community is starting to worry, given the strategic importance of this trade corridor for the entire country.

“This labor conflict will seriously affect our businesses. This is another interruption at the heart of the supply chain, and all Quebec manufacturers are once once more being held hostage. The seaway is the main economic artery of Quebec and eastern Canada. We encourage the parties involved to negotiate an agreement as quickly as possible in order to put an end to this situation,” declared the president and CEO of Manufacturiers et exportateurs du Québec, Véronique Proulx.

At the Quebec Trucking Association, President and CEO Marc Cadieux reports that his industry will not be immediately asked to compensate for the interruption in maritime transport, but it is perhaps only a question of time.

“The biggest headache right now is shipping companies who, of course, have to find other ways to get the goods in,” he said. But “there might also be factories or processing methods in the manufacturing sector that will lack raw materials. So, we might not be called because there is nothing to transport and, suddenly, all be called at the same time, when the products are ready to go to buyers, to consumption,” illustrated M . Cadieux.

And he warns that this additional handling and redirection of merchandise will necessarily lead to increased costs. “There are always costs attached to that. And these costs have a domino effect towards the product, towards consumption. That is inevitable,” concluded Mr. Cadieux.

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