A strike by B.C.’s unionized truckers has been averted after a tentative agreement was reached Thursday afternoon.
The proposed agreement was reached in a meeting with federal and provincial government representatives, as well as Port Metro Vancouver, with the help of veteran mediator Vince Ready.
About 300 members of Unifor-Vancouver Container Truckers Association (VCTA) had planned to put up picket lines Thursday afternoon, joining more than 1,000 non-union truckers who started a work stoppage last week to protest long wait times and pay rates at the ports.
Last Saturday, Unifor members voted unanimously in favour of taking strike action.
However, the union called off the job action late Thursday afternoon after the tentative agreement was reached.
"This is one small step towards justice for container truck drivers," said Paul Johal, president of Unifor-VCTA. "Truckers will not be millified with lip service to this review. We are watching developments closely."
Meetings with Ready will continue this week as he conducts a review of the industry, which is to be complete by the end of May.
Unifor-VCTA members are set to vote on the proposed agreement on Saturday.
Non-union truckers, represented by the United Truckers Association, say they will continue with job action until at least Saturday when truckers will also have a chance to review and vote on the proposal.
In the meantime, the work stoppage has affected container traffic at local ports and shipments destined for Lower Mainland ports are starting to be diverted to other terminals on the West Coast.
Peter Xotta, vice-president of planning and operations for Port Metro Vancouver, said earlier this week that major retailers have begun to execute their diversion plans to other ports. He did not know how much cargo would be diverted, but speculated it would likely be sent to ports in Seattle or Tacoma.
Port Metro Vancouver said Tuesday that local trucking moves about 1.3 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers per year and that based on the 2011 economic impact study figures, the value of those goods would be approximately $46 billion per year, or $885 million worth of cargo moved by truck weekly.
