The extended strike that halted work at B.C.’s ports over the past couple of weeks has caused “severe backlogs” that could take months to recover, a national trade group has warned.
Work resumed Thursday after the federal government reached a tentative deal with the B.C. Maritime Employers Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada.
The shutdown began on July 1 and ended on July 13.
The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters said in a statement Thursday that the trade sector is not “out of the woods yet,” as the damage to manufacturing supply chains is “significant.”
The CME estimates that one day of port shutdown could take up to a week to make up for the lost activity.
“The (13) day-long strike has caused severe backlogs that will take weeks to process,” said CME, which represents 2,500 manufacturers from across Canada.
The strike has sent ripple effects from coast to coast.
A CME survey of its members conducted between July 11 and 13 found that nearly two-thirds of manufacturers in Canada said the strike affected their operations and among those hit, almost 70 per cent said the impact was “significant” to “severe.”
On average, the strike caused delays that cost businesses $207,000 per day, the poll showed.
For 90 per cent of manufacturers who took part in the survey, the strike disrupted their supply of raw materials or components, and for 70 per cent it had a negative impact on their customer relations, CME said.
“While we are relieved this current crisis appears to be over, the work of manufacturers is not done,” said Dennis Darby, president and CEO of CME, in a statement.
“They will be spending the next several months sorting through the damage and getting caught up. The total cost to our industry is not just the days of the strike, but the days and months of work that precede and follow a disruption.“
The federal government has said the scale of the disruption has been significant.
“We do not want to be back here again,” said Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra in a joint statement Thursday.
“Deals like this, made between parties at the collective bargaining table, are the best way to prevent that. They are the best way to preserve the long-term stability of Canada’s economy. But we do not want to be back here again.”
About 7,400 workers had been on strike since Canada Day, halting shipments in and out of about 30 ports in B.C., including Canada’s largest, the Port of Vancouver.
The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade estimates more than $9.3 billion of trade has been disrupted since the strike began.
Workers were demanding higher wages, and the union also said it was seeking to protect members from the “erosion” of work stemming from outside contract workers and port automation.
— with files from Global News’ Aaron D’Andrea and Amy Judd