B.C port strike hurt Canada's reputation, industry tells MPs

Auto manufacturing groups says companies are avoiding Vancouver and Montreal because of stoppages. ‘Disruptions have become a feature not a bug’

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OTTAWA – MPs studying the crippling Vancouver port strike this summer heard the nearly month-long job action caused real chaos and reputational damage to Canada and argued something should be done to prevent future strikes.

Brian Kingston, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association told MPs that the strike caused major delays to an auto industry still struggling with post-pandemic supply chain issues. He said labour issues, border closures and weather problems are all adding up and causing Canada’s supply routes to become more fragile.

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“Disruptions have become a feature not a bug of the Canadian transportation system,” he told MPs.

The Vancouver port was closed for nearly a month with a settlement reached and then rejected, before being finalized with port workers. Kingston said a looming potential strike at the Port of Montreal has people worried and some major companies are simply skipping the major Canadians ports.

“We do see real reputational damage that has been done, so companies are as much as possible trying to reduce their dependence on those ports to make sure that should there be stoppages, they have a contingency plan in place,” he said.

The summer strike in Vancouver was estimated to have cost the economy at least $10 billion and helped fuel inflation. Kingston said the government needs to be better prepared for strikes and lockouts and at least offer industry a contact to avoid bottlenecks.

“We’d like to see better communications plans, a co-ordination amongst all levels of government when there are these disruptions so that industry can at least know who to call and effectively how to find a way around.”

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Robert Ashton, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada, blamed the length of the strike on management.

He argued the structure at B.C. ports, where his union negotiated with an employee association instead of individual employers, was a major reason for the protracted talks, because the union wasn’t dealing directly with the people who could make decisions.

There was pressure on the Liberal government to recall Parliament and bring in back to work legislation to end the strike, but Ashton said that would have only further poisoned the relationship.

“You would see an absolute destruction of the relationship between the employers and the union and the workers and that’s something that can never happen,” he said.

Ashton conceded that collective bargaining is difficult, but he said the union has to have the right to bargain for their members.

“We have to be able to make gains for our members when our employers make profits when our employers do good. We expected to do good as well.”

Ashton said future automation of port jobs was a major issue and argued ports shouldn’t be seeking that level of automation.

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“We don’t need to automate our terminals. We need to keep people employed,” he said. “When you automate away jobs that destroys communities.”

Alberta Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors Devin Dreeshen said his province felt the federal government wasn’t taking the strike seriously enough, wasn’t recognizing that it was doing real damage.

He said when the Port of Montreal went on strike in 2021 the strike was swiftly ended with back to work legislation and he would have liked to see the government act as quickly when the Vancouver port went on strike.

“We were left just dismayed by the fact that the West Coast port strike was not treated with the same urgency by the same federal government.”

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