Port of Halifax © Atgimages |
By Alexander Whiteman
14/11/2024
Forwarders have lambasted the Canadian authorities for its “late intervention” within the stand-off between dockers and their employers throughout the nation’s ports.
Responding to labour minister Steve MacKinnon’s order to the Industrial Relations Board (IRB) this week to increase present collective bargaining agreements and impose arbitration on all events, one forwarder advised The Loadstar: “The large query right here is why the federal government waited till the harm was carried out earlier than stepping in.
“It was clear to everybody they’d should get entangled and, as soon as once more, they waited till the strike was in full impact earlier than coming to the rescue.
“Industry is pleased that goods will be moving again, but probably more annoyed that it’s kind of too late, the damage has been done.”
Regardless of the intervention, unions, together with the Longshoremen’s CUPE Native 375 on the port of Montreal, have vowed to struggle the motion within the courts.
Equally, the Worldwide Longshore and Warehouse Union Native 514, representing dockers in British Colombia, warned the federal government it might “not forget how employers and this federal Liberal government have attacked all of labour”.
The forwarder we spoke with mentioned this motion might affect the federal government’s relationship with unions, including: “It’ll be interesting to see if the unions truly do remember this.”
Neither is this the primary time Mr MacKinnon’s timing has been thought of off, his August choice to make use of the IRB to resolve a dispute between rail employees and their employers was criticised.
As within the current scenario, the labour minister pressured members of the Teamsters Union into binding arbitration with railroads Canadian Pacific Kansas Metropolis (CPKC) and Canadian Nationwide (CN), once more upsetting unions, who mentioned Mr MacKinnon had been “manipulated” by the carriers.
The forwarder mentioned that scenario had performed out “almost exactly like this, with government getting involved too late… The difference here is timing, the port strike is in the busiest season”.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence this has happened during the holiday rush. The impact will be significant. Unfortunately, the only ones who end up paying for all of this are consumers. That’s where all of the additional cost has to trickle down.”
At Montreal, the dispute centres round terminals operated by Termont, chargeable for some 40% of the port’s quantity, and has been rumbling on since 31 October, with carriers having sought to bypass the scenario by rerouting providers into Halifax (pictured).
Warning “while there may be some progress” with this diversion, the forwarder mentioned, carriers might face cargo backlogs there.
“It solely works if union members in Halifax agree to dump the containers, as a result of in earlier eventualities different ports refused to just accept ships initially destined for ports that have been on strike.
“It’ll take weeks to clear the backlog and, during the holiday season rush to get goods on the shelves, a lot of them won’t make it on time, and the cost will increase significantly.”
In a warning to shippers, the forwarder famous that, whereas the associated fee could stream all the way down to customers, given the seasonality of merchandise coming in, it might “be much more difficult to pass the cost on after the holiday rush”.
