Federal board ordered to review, end B.C. port dispute | 24CA News
The Canada Industrial Relations Board was tasked with reviewing and doubtlessly ending the British Columbia port labour dispute as of Saturday after the second rejection of a tentative labour deal sparked mounting requires back-to-work laws.
Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan laid out the transfer in a press release launched Saturday, saying he has directed the CIRB to find out if a negotiated decision within the dispute remains to be doable after the union mentioned its full membership rejected the newest deal on Friday night time.
O’Regan mentioned the board is to “either impose a new collective agreement on the parties or impose final binding arbitration” if it determines a negotiated decision is now not doable.
“Our economy cannot face further disruption from this dispute,” O’Regan’s assertion mentioned. “Following the Incident Response Group meeting with the Prime Minister on July 19, the government is prepared for all options and eventualities.”
The convening of the federal government’s incident response group is often reserved for moments of nationwide disaster.
This is the second time the board will weigh in on the months-long dispute between International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada and the BC Maritime Employers Association.
On July 19, the board dominated a short return to picket traces by port employees the day earlier than was unlawful with out enough discover, bringing an finish to that work stoppage after earlier strike motion halted operations at B.C. ports from July 1 to 13.
Saturday’s growth got here after a Friday night announcement from the union representing 7,400 employees. It mentioned a full-membership vote has rejected a tentative settlement drafted by a federal mediator, placing operations at greater than 30 port terminals and different websites again in limbo.
Several business teams and one political chief have renewed their requires the federal authorities to legislate an finish to the dispute, which froze billions of {dollars}’ value of products at Canada’s West Coast ports — reminiscent of Vancouver, the biggest within the nation — in the course of the 13-day stoppage in early July.
In a press release, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith described the disruption as a “logistical nightmare” for Western Canada’s economic system and referred to as for all federal events to “immediately return to Ottawa and pass back-to-work legislation.”
Organizations such because the Business Council of Canada, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade have echoed Smith’s sentiments, implying or outright stating assist for a legislated finish to the dispute.
“The failure to ratify a mediated deal will harm workers and businesses from many sectors across Canada whose employment and income might be impacted, as well as all Canadian families who face rising prices,” Business Council of Canada President and CEO Goldy Hyder mentioned in a press release. “Enough is enough.”
GVBOT President and CEO Bridgitte Anderson mentioned Canada can’t danger the financial fallout of one other strike stemming from the dispute.
“An agreed-upon deal has now been rejected twice by the union,” Anderson mentioned. “It is time for the federal government and opposition parties to intervene to ensure that our ports stay open, and we can avoid needlessly stoking inflation and affecting other union and non-union jobs.”
But federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh mentioned the higher plan of action is to get the feuding events again to the negotiating desk.
“We cannot lose sight of what is at stake for B.C. port workers, but also for all workers,” Singh mentioned in a press release. “Going to work to earn a living that feeds your family and puts a roof over your head is not too much to ask when CEOs are enjoying record profits.”
Labour motion researcher Barry Eidlin mentioned O’Regan’s determination to direct the CIRB to behave on the port dispute is basically a “sanitized” model of back-to-work laws, calling it a extra bureaucratic solution to obtain the identical impact as a legislative finish to the battle.
Eidlin, an affiliate professor of sociology at McGill University, mentioned the transfer does nothing to enhance Canada’s repute for “putting its finger on the scale” in favour of employers, noting the nation’s historic tendency to power an finish to labour disputes has already attracted criticism from teams such because the United Nations’ International Labour Organization.
“Ending the immediate industrial conflict at hand does not resolve the underlying issues that have led to the conflict,” Eidlin mentioned. “It’s just swept under the rug, so they can just bubble up later.”
He additionally mentioned an overreliance on back-to-work laws or related measures may end result within the union and its members taking strike motion no matter legality, a trademark of union actions of many years previous as employees fought for basic rights that weren’t revered, usually towards the legal guidelines of these instances.
While the port employees’ union’s assertion didn’t say why members rejected the settlement, the union has repeatedly talked about the onset of automation within the port business and the jurisdiction of upkeep work “aggressively eroded” by third-party contractors.
In a since-deleted Facebook publish, ILWU Local 500 Vice-President Rickey Baryer mentioned upkeep work “will be a huge part” of longshore employees’ future, and the language within the deal didn’t protect union members’ function on this job space.
“All I will say is that I pray that our members from all Locals see that the government forced a contract on us that is the beginning of the end of our very existence,” Baryer wrote within the publish revealed earlier than the union revealed its voting outcomes.
Baryer, who mentioned within the publish he’s on the union’s bargaining committee, declined to remark to The Canadian Press in regards to the vote outcomes.
The BCMEA mentioned the rejected deal included a compounded wage enhance of 19.2 per cent and a signing bonus amounting to about $3,000 per full-time employee. It added the end result would have “potentially” boosted union longshore employee’s median annual wage from $136,000 to $162,000, not together with pension and advantages.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed July 29, 2023.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
