Signs displaying "closed" are seen at the Centerm Container Terminal as striking International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada workers picket at the port, in Vancouver, B.C., Tuesday, July 11, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
VANCOUVER – A source close to negotiations over the British Columbia port strike said both sides on Wednesday received the terms of a settlement recommended by a federal mediator that could end the 12-day-old industrial action.
The delivery of the terms comes after federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan late Tuesday instructed the mediator to send him the terms within 24 hours so he could forward them to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada and the B.C. Maritime Employers Association.
The two sides have 24 hours upon receiving the recommendations to decide whether or not to ratify the agreement.
Neither side confirmed they have received the terms.
British Columbia business groups said there’s no guarantee the strike will end quickly despite O’Regan’s move.
The groups, including the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, the B.C. Council of Forest Industries and the Mining Association of B.C., said at an event in Vancouver on Wednesday that they are continuing to call for federal back-to-work legislation to end the strike involving 7,400 dock workers at more than 30 ports, including Canada’s busiest, the Port of Vancouver.
Board of Trade president and CEO Bridgitte Anderson said an estimated $8.9 billion in trade has been disrupted since the strike began, and 63,000 shipping containers are “waiting on the water to be unloaded” at B.C. ports.
That number could balloon to 245,000 by the end of July if the strike isn’t resolved by then, Anderson said.
O’Regan said Tuesday the gap between the workers’ and employers’ positions was “not sufficient to justify a continued work stoppage.”
B.C. Premier David Eby said at the close of a premiers’ meeting in Winnipeg on Wednesday that the strike cannot drag on.
“This isn’t just the Port of Vancouver, it’s the port of Saskatchewan, it’s the port of Alberta and it’s the port of Manitoba,” Eby said. “So it’s critically important infrastructure for Canadians, for people who go to work in industries where those goods are exported globally.”
“It has a profoundly damaging impact across the country on workers who are also trying to feed their families right now.”
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said his province’s potash customers could soon take their business to Russia and Belarus if the dispute continues.
“Today, it might be easier for you to get a ton of Russian potash fertilizer than it is to get a ton of Saskatchewan potash fertilizer,” Moe said. “So the impacts are much broader than what’s happening just at the port there.”
On Tuesday, Nutrien Ltd. said it had curtailed production at its Cory potash mine in Saskatchewan due to the strike.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said if businesses can’t get their goods to markets because of the strike, Canada could start to lose international customers.
The mediator’s recommended terms are non-binding, and either side can vote to reject them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 12, 2023.
