With cargo shipping paralysed at B.C.’s ports, Ottawa is pressuring both sides in the labour dispute to “do the work” and get a deal done, while some of the province’s top business leaders are adding their voices.
The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade estimates the work stoppage at B.C. ports is disrupting $800 million worth of trade per day as the BC Maritime Employers Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514, representing hundreds of supervisors, refuse to budge.
Mediated talks broke down on Saturday, hours after they started with no new bargaining scheduled, stranding most goods in B.C. ports.
Federal Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon is now weighing in, releasing a statement saying both sides “must understand the urgency of the situation” with the lockout now in its second week, and must “do the work necessary to reach an agreement.”
B.C. business leaders are equally as urgent in their calls to get talks going and goods flowing.
The heads of the province’s major boards of trade, chambers of commerce and mining and forestry associations plan to update the economic impact of the port dispute and make what they’re calling an important announcement at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The BCMEA locked out 730 longshore supervisors on Nov. 4, hours before ILWU strike action was set to begin.
This labour disruption comes after more than a year of negotiations, with no union contract in place since March 2023.
Last year, a 13-day strike at B.C. ports caused an estimated $10 billion in trade disruption.
–With files from The Canadian Press.