Port of Montreal employer issues ‘final’ offer to dock workers, threatens to shut out – Montreal
The employers’ association at the Port of Montreal has issued a “final, complete offer” to the dock workers’ union, threatening to lock out workers by 9 p.m. Sunday if an agreement is not reached.
On Friday morning, the union – Syndicat des débardeurs du port de Montréal – and the Maritime Employers Association spent two hours with the union mediator without progress.
The employers’ association says the new proposal includes a three percent annual wage increase for four years and 3.5 percent in the following two years. It says the bid will bring the Port of Montreal’s longshoreman’s total compensation package to more than $200,000 a year by the end of the contract.
“The MEA agrees to this large compensation increase due to the availability required of its employees,” it wrote Thursday evening in a press release.
The organization added that it is asking longshoremen to give at least one hour’s notice when they will be off duty – instead of one minute – to help reduce management issues that “have a significant impact on day-to-day operations.”
Michel Murray, with the union representing nearly 1,200 longshoremen, said Friday the latest offer includes more than “cosmetic changes.”
The union launched an indefinite strike on October 31, which paralyzed two terminals representing 40 percent of the port’s total container handling capacity. A full overtime strike, affecting the entire port, began on October 10.
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The union said it would accept the same increase offered to its colleagues in Halifax or Vancouver – 20 per cent over four years. It also deals with scheduling and work-life balance.
Murray said the employer’s new proposal does not address workforce planning issues. “Zero. Zip. Nyet,” he said. He also said the $200,000 compensation figure set by the employer is inaccurate.
Union leadership was expected to meet on Friday afternoon to decide whether to submit the new proposal to members for a vote. Murray said he was not opposed to this, but suggested that members were unlikely to support it as they had previously rejected two similar promises by secret ballot.
The workers have not had a collective agreement since Dec. 31, 2023.
Only essential services and activities not related to longshoring will continue in the port after nine o’clock at night on Sunday in case of closure, said the employer.
The ongoing conflict has had a major impact on Canada’s second-largest port, which handles about $400 million worth of goods every day.
On Thursday, the head of the Montreal Ports Authority, Julie Gascon, repeated her call for government intervention to end the dispute, which has left all container handling powers at international ports “at a standstill.”
“I believe the best deals are negotiated at the table,” he said in a news release. “But let’s face it, there are no negotiations, and the government must act by giving both sides a path to true industrial peace.”
Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon issued a statement Thursday, ahead of the lockout notice, in which he criticized the slow pace of negotiations at the ports of Montreal and British Columbia, where more than 700 unionized port workers have been locked out since November 4.
“Both of these negotiations are proceeding at an insufficient pace, which shows a lack of urgency on the part of the parties involved,” he wrote on X’s social media platform.
On Friday, he and the Minister of Public Works and Procurement, Jean-Yves Duclos, repeated their calls for both sides to come to the negotiating table to reach an agreement.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
