Both sides appear to be dug in and the rhetoric is flying back and forth as thousands of B.C. port workers, including those who load and unload containers at Deltaport, have been on strike since last Saturday.
Asking the government to not interfere, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU) had been negotiating with the B.C. Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) with the assistance of a federal mediator, until talks between the two sides stalled on Monday.
The BCMEA then issued a statement saying it did not think more bargaining would produce a deal, saying it has gone as far as possible on core issues, but the union seems to be entrenched.
BCMEA says ILWU Canada is “attempting to aggressively expand their scope and re-define Regular Maintenance Work far beyond what is set out in the industry-wide agreement” but the union countered, “This is completely false and evidence that the Association is deaf to the real and legitimate concerns of the Union.”
BCMEA also said the union’s proposals for compensation are unreasonable and well outside the established norm of union settlements in Canada. Noting the BCMEA’s position is consistent with how the association approaches most issues, the union countered that member employers “have enjoyed record high profits for many years now and especially during the pandemic” and that they were also “gorging on massive profits.”
Saying they had been negotiating in good faith since February, ILWU Canada said it assessed early in the process that the BCMEA “was not willing to engage in any meaningful way on substantive issues” and that the association’s bargaining committee “is devoid of the real decision makers in the industry.”
The union also said it is “available every day, at any hour of the day” and “implored” the BCMEA to get back to the bargaining table. The union also noted the key issue holding up a deal is the “rampant contracting out” of ILWU maintenance work to third parties.
ILWU Canada on Tuesday said its bargaining committee met with federal mediators, proposing a meeting with four of the direct employers, one of which is Global Container Terminals (GCT) which operates the container port at Roberts Bank.
