B.C. port strike must end ‘immediately,’ Poilievre says, urges Trudeau to act | 24CA News
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is looking on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to finish a port employees strike in British Columbia “immediately.”
Roughly 7,400 port employees walked off the job once more Tuesday after their union rejected a proposal that briefly ended the strike final week.
That tentative settlement between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU) and the B.C. Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) was proposed by a meditator who acquired path from Ottawa to desk the provide.
“Justin Trudeau must do his job and end this strike immediately because of the massive cost to workers, consumers and businesses,” he instructed reporters in Niagara Falls, Ont. on Wednesday.
“We’re calling on him to deliver a plan (and) end this strike within the next 24 hours.”
BCMEA mentioned in a press release Tuesday that the ILWU’s inside caucus management rejected the “fair and comprehensive package” that was proposed by the mediator.
BCMEA mentioned the proposed four-year collective settlement included “considerable hikes in wages and benefits” that exceeded the approximate 10 per cent enhance over the previous three years.
The proposed will increase, it added, had been additionally “generally above the established norm of recent private and public sector union settlements in British Columbia and Canada.”
In a press release, the ILWU mentioned that with “the record profits that the BCMEA’s member companies have earned over the last few years, the employers have not addressed the cost-of-living issues that our workers have faced over the last couple of years as all workers have.”
In a press release Tuesday, Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra shared frustration the settlement fell aside.
“We have been patient. Canadians have been patient. Every effort has been made. But this cannot go on,” O’Regan mentioned.
Alghabra instructed reporters in Newfoundland Wednesday mentioned whereas the federal government believes within the collective bargaining course of, he was disillusioned by the end result and that Ottawa is now “exploring options.” He didn’t elaborate as to what these choices had been.
Poilievre blamed the strike’s resumption on Trudeau’s “total incompetence,” saying he prompted the job motion by “raising the cost of living.”
Stakeholders have been fast to name on Ottawa to step in.
“I don’t think the government has much choice now but to legislate them back, to be honest with you,” mentioned John Corey, president of the Freight Management Association of Canada.
Workers had been off the job from July 1 to 13, which value roughly $10 billion in misplaced commerce, the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade estimates. Shipments had been halted out and in of about 30 ports in B.C., together with Canada’s largest, the Port of Vancouver.
“Thirteen days was bad enough; it’s going to take until October to clear that through the supply chain. And if this goes back on, not only is it going to jam up the supply chain, it makes Canada look like a laughing stock,” Corey mentioned.
In its personal assertion, the B.C. Chamber of Commerce mentioned it was “profoundly disappointed” the union had rejected the deal.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who has been vocal in regards to the labour dispute because it started, posted to Twitter calling for the Liberal authorities to reconvene Parliament and legislate an finish to the dispute.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business additionally known as calling on Ottawa Wednesday to go back-to-work laws to finish the strike.
In 2021, the Tories supported the minority Liberals in passing back-to-work laws to finish a short strike on the Port of Montreal that additionally restricted the circulation of hundreds of thousands price in items.
— with information from Amy Judd
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