The federal labour minister ordered an end to work stoppages at Canada’s largest ports in British Columbia and Quebec on Tuesday, imposing “final and binding arbitration” on the parties. At least one union said it will challenge the order.
Dock workers at Canada’s busiest ports are both locked out after unions and employers failed to reach a deal at the table. Workers at the Port of Montreal took to the picket lines on Sunday night, joining their already locked-out peers at B.C. ports.
The labour action has stymied the flow of more than $1.2 billion worth of goods flowing through those channels on a daily basis.
Steve MacKinnon told reporters Tuesday that, despite directing the parties back to the table in recent days, there has been little progress in negotiations.
He said he has directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to “order that all operations and duties at the ports resume and to assist the parties in settling 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 ports in B.C. and in Montreal, as well as longshoremen working at the Port of Quebec, who have now been locked out for more than two years.
MacKinnon cited the impact on Canada’s economy, reputation as a reliable trading partner and on jobs connected to the ports as justification for the move.
“We rely on the movement of goods through our ports. If these work stoppages go on, the impacts will only worsen and our well-earned reputation for reliability will be put at risk,” he said.
“Canadians … have limited tolerance for economic self-harm,” MacKinnon added.
The Maritime Employers Association in Montreal 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 direction.
The B.C. dockworkers union, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Ship & Dock Foremen Local 514, said it will challenge the government’s order and called the move an insult to both the union and workers’ bargaining rights.
The Quebec branch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the nearly 1,200 dockworkers at Montreal’s port, 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 news release in French.
Second instance of binding arbitration this year
This marks the second time in a matter of months that the Liberal government has imposed binding arbitration to end a labour stoppage, last using such powers to end a shutdown at Canada’s two largest railway companies in August.
The Teamsters union representing workers at CN Rail and CPKC launched a lawsuit against the government to appeal the decision to bring about an end to that work stoppage. The matter is still before the courts.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh blasted the Liberal government’s moves in a statement Tuesday. He accused Justin Trudeau and his party of caving to “corporate greed” and stripping power from unions.
“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 fall further behind. And especially in the case of the ports negotiations, Trudeau’s order is putting good Canadian jobs at risk.”
Singh added that “the only place to get a fair deal is at the bargaining table.”
MacKinnon said he understands there will be debate about 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 that there was no momentum towards getting a deal at any of the ports.
At that juncture, with the scale of economic impact at risk, MacKinnon said, “any responsible government” would step in.
“As the economic losses threaten the country and begin to mount, it is up to the government to ensure that a fair settlement is reached,” MacKinnon said.
He argued that “arbitration leads to fair settlements” while acknowledging they are “maybe not as durable as those that are reached at the bargaining table.”
But he said the action would be enough “that we can get on with the economic life of this country and avoid layoffs and other carnage in many of our commercial sectors and for workers and their families.”
The Vancouver Board of Trade said in a statement Tuesday that the provincial port shutdowns had so far disrupted an estimated $6.1 billion worth of goods directly, with knock-on effects throughout the country.
Pascal Chan, senior director of transportation, infrastructure and construction at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, tells Global News that the B.C. and Montreal port closures followed wave after wave of disruptions in Canadian supply chains, whether from labour action or extreme weather. The simultaneous shutdown of Canada’s two largest ports presented a “perfect storm” for Canadian businesses, he says.
“With these repeated shutdowns, we’re not showing that we’re we’re effectively advertising that Canada’s closed for business. In that situation, we put Canadian contracts as risks, which puts Canadian businesses at risk and the Canadian jobs at risk,” Chan says.
Experts who spoke to Global News on Monday said that small- and medium-sized businesses were likely to face the brunt of the impacts from port shutdowns, as larger corporations have more flexibility in their supply chains.
Jasmin Guenette, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’ vice-president of national affairs, said in a statement Tuesday that the small business group was “relieved” that the disruptions were progressing towards a resolution, but also called on the federal government to declare port workers essential to avoid future impasses.
“A lengthy work stoppage has harmful consequences for the whole economy that are disproportionate to the benefit any of the parties involved can obtain,” she said.
Liberals claim 'pro-worker' stance
Workers in Montreal have been trying to resolve scheduling and job security issues, as well as secure improved pay to catch up with a rising cost of living. B.C. dock workers are also pushing for a pay bump, as well as measures to ensure minimum staffing levels in the face of rising autonomous technology adoption at the ports.
MacKinnon argued to reporters that his intervention in the disputes was, in fact, “pro-worker,” as it delivers stability for Canadians whose careers rely on the country’s transportation sector.
Adam King, a labour studies professor at the University of Manitoba, tells Global News that is a “ridiculous position.”
“It takes a certain degree of mental gymnastics to characterize interfering with collective bargaining as a pro-worker position,” he says.
Even if there are reduced working hours or delays in getting products to shelf, King says there’s “no evidence” that labour disruptions result in “significant layoffs.”
“The economy is a dynamic machine, and one particular strike or work stoppage is not going to produce unemployment in any concentrated fashion,” he says.
The decision to unilaterally impose binding arbitration, rather than table back-to-work legislation in Parliament, comes as the House of Commons remains in procedural gridlock, limiting the chance the minority Liberal government can pass any bills at all.
MacKinnon said that his powers to direct the CIRB to propose binding arbitration are derived from section 107 of the Canada Labour Code.
But King says that back-to-work legislation may, in fact, have been preferrable to this course of action, because at least it is subject to debate in the House.
Instead, he calls binding arbitration “highly undemocratic” and at-odds with Canadians’ constitutionally protected rights to strike.
It also sets a precedent that allows employers to engage half-heartedly with unions at the bargaining table, instead relying on the government the step in and impose a deal, King argues.
“If employers expect that the government will intervene and bail them out, when negotiations get difficult, they won’t take them seriously,” King says. “And so if the government is serious about addressing that issue, 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 strike deals without the need for direct federal government intervention.
— with files from Global News’ Jillian Piper, Touria Izri and Sean Boynton and The Canadian Press’ Rosa Saba