VANCOUVER — British Columbia’s businesses leaders are urging port employers and more than 700 unionized workers to resolve their dispute immediately as a lockdown paralyzes shipping along Canada’s west coast.
The BC Maritime Employers Association says no negotiations are scheduled a day after it launched what it calls a defensive lockout against members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514.
Locked-out workers have begun picketing outside terminals around the province, most of them in Metro Vancouver but also including about 70 workers in Prince Rupert and 20 in Nanaimo.
Dozens of workers wearing signs and waving blue union flags have set up a tarp shelter with folding chairs at the entrance of Neptune Terminals in North Vancouver, B.C., cheering as passing vehicles honked in support.
Greater Vancouver Board of Trade president Bridgitte Anderson says the work stoppage at the Port of Vancouver — Canada’s largest — comes at a critical time for the economy, and her organization is calling on the federal government to “intervene immediately.”
BC Chamber of Commerce president Fiona Famulak is urging employers, the union and Ottawa to “diligently to find a resolution quickly” to avoid inflicting any more harm on the Canadian economy.
“The BC Chamber of Commerce supports the right to collective bargaining,” Famulak said in a statement. “However, the inability of the ILWU and BCMEA to negotiate a new agreement and avoid another work stoppage at Canada’s largest port is disappointing.
“Our port infrastructure is too critical to the health and success of businesses and workers to have this dispute continue one moment longer.”
The employers and the workers represented by Local 514 have been without a contract since March 2023.
The dispute is over issues including port automation being introduced by port terminal operator DP World and what it would mean for unionized worker staffing levels.
There had been several days of mediated talks last week in an attempt to break the deadlock, but a “final offer” from the employers resulted in the union responding with a notice for strike action, which prompted the employers to lock out workers starting Monday.
The union has called the provincewide lockout an overreaction to its plans for implementing only an overtime ban, adding that it believes the employers are trying to force the federal government to intervene.
The employers, meanwhile, said they had to lock out workers because a strike notice allows the union to escalate job action without notice.
