Railcars are seen on the tracks outside the Viterra Cascadia Terminal in Vancouver on Wednesday, July 12, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
VANCOUVER – Grain terminal workers picked a “high leverage moment” to go on strike in Metro Vancouver as farmers in Western Canada have an abundance of product to move for export, a food economics and supply chain expert says.
Picket lines went up at six grain terminals in Metro Vancouver on Tuesday as about 600 workers with Grain Workers Union Local 333 began their strike.
University of Guelph food economist Michael von Massow said they represent a small but crucial link in the grain export supply chain.
“If you live in Vancouver, you might drive by these big buildings and not understand how integral they are in the supply chain for western grain primarily,” Massow said.
“If those terminals are not working, you essentially shut off the supply chain for export wheat.”
Massow said it was “relatively smart” for the union to go on strike as farmers have a glut of grain and “get stuck with it” if terminals aren’t accepting shipments for export.
The “immediate pain,” he said, is that millions worth of product doesn’t get shipped, then possible reputational damage as customers may look elsewhere for wheat.
Canada’s labour minister said Tuesday that he spoke with both the employer and union representatives a day earlier, and they agreed to resume contract negotiations alongside federal mediators.
Steven MacKinnon posted the message on the social media platform X, saying Canadian farmers had a “bumper crop” they need to get to market.
Union president Douglas Lea-Smith said the minister’s involvement was a positive step, and a meeting was scheduled for Wednesday between the union and the employer to try to resolve the “impasse” in bargaining.
Lea-Smith said the employer, the Vancouver Terminal Elevators Association, had not “meaningfully engaged” in a dozen days of bargaining ahead of further negotiations with help from the federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
He said the employers’ association has “dragged its feet at bargaining,” giving the union incomplete replies to proposals, while offering a “poor proposal” that the membership didn’t accept.
A statement issued by the Shipping Federation of Canada over the weekend said the union and the association concluded conciliation with help from the federal service on Aug. 26, but could not come to an agreement on a new contract.
Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association, said Tuesday that the parties had been in negotiations since last November and the union was “slow-playing it” to time strike action with the fall wheat harvest.
“They managed the clock to bring this all to a head,” he said. “So, we’re right in the middle of harvest, so there’s maximum pressure on the employers to give more in the bargaining process.”
The affected operations include Viterra’s Cascadia and Pacific Terminals, Richardson International Terminal, Cargill Limited Terminal, G3 Terminal Vancouver and Alliance Grain Terminal, all located in Vancouver and North Vancouver.
“But there is no right and wrong in this situation. It’s all about leverage and perspective,” Sobkowich said. “We feel that what we’re offering in terms of wages is very fair.”
He added: “The union obviously disagrees or they wouldn’t be on strike.”
The union has said it provided the employer with a “comprehensive package” last Thursday, but the next day, the association indicated it had no counter offer.
But Lea-Smith said the association released a “full proposal” directly to workers, sidestepping the union.
“They just walked right around us because they believe that we don’t represent our members, even though we’re elected by our members,” he said.
The major sticking point in the negotiations related to time in lieu, he said.
“There are some minor monetary issues, but for the most part, it’s largely over earned time-off days, which we call lieu days,” he said.
Lea-Smith said the employer was trying to remove lieu days, and the strike action would continue in order to apply pressure at the bargaining table.
The lieu days stretch back to binding arbitration in 2002, when the workers moved to an round-the-clock operation, he said.
“Grain workers in 2002, on a pro rata basis, compared to today, earned more money than we do,” he said.
It’s the first time the union local has gone on strike since about 1970, he said.
Sobkowich said the Vancouver Terminal Elevators’ Association, the bargaining unit for the employers, did not “side step the union” and they’re preparing for mediation Wednesday “focusing on getting to a quick resolution.”
Von Massow said the strike highlights relatively unknown “links in a variety of our food supply chains.”
The strike wouldn’t disrupt the domestic food supply, he said, but would affect the supply chains of buyers of Canadian wheat and canola.
“For many of us, it will stay invisible because we’ll hear about this strike, but we won’t feel the implications of it, but grain elevators, grain companies and farmers will feel this almost immediately and feel it quite acutely,” he said. “So yeah, it is these unknown links in the supply chain that can really bung things up relatively quickly.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2024.
