Employers lock out longshore workers in Montreal after contract offer is rejected

The employers’ association at the Port of Montreal locked out nearly 1,200 dock workers on Sunday evening, bringing traffic at the port to a standstill.

The Maritime Employers Association (MEA) is calling on federal Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon to intervene in the dispute to end the impasse at Canada’s second-largest port.

“A number of economic and maritime players across the country have made the same request in recent weeks to get things moving,” the MEA said in a statement. “Like the MEA, they all want this dispute to be resolved so that Québec and Canadian businesses can no longer be held hostage and can rely on predictable and uninterrupted operations at the Port of Montreal.”

Julie Gascon, CEO of the Montreal Port Authority, warned of the economic consequences of a prolonged conflict.

“So right now, of course, there are 1,200 (longshoremen) who are not working, but there are also all the truck drivers, the pilots, everyone who supplies ships, everyone who supports the Port of Montreal,” Gascon explained.

Gascon says this is especially problematic because Montreal is “the cornerstone of the third largest economy in the world.”

“We serve 65 percent of Canada’s population and 75 percent of Canada’s manufacturing capacity,” she told CityNews. “This impacts our reputation and our ability to be seen as a preferred trading partner, which is what maritime shipping companies are looking for. They are looking for security. They want to know if there will be capacity and they want to know if their ships will be loaded or not.

“And right now we can’t give them any of those three things, so they go somewhere else.”

The Montreal employers’ association said it initiated the lockout Sunday evening at 9 p.m. ET, after unionized workers voted to reject a contract offer submitted last week.

A spokesperson for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) says 99.7 per cent of members have rejected the proposal.

“We are in a lockout situation because employers don’t want to negotiate,” said Michel Murray of CUPE Local 375, the dockworkers’ union. “We have made numerous offers to sit down, but they refuse to respect our right to collective bargaining. Our main issue at the table is the work-life balance schedule. We say to the maritime company: ‘You want a long-term contract, you want a long-term collective labor agreement, we have to determine the planning and go to the negotiating table.’

The union has said it will accept the same pay increases given to its counterparts in Halifax and Vancouver: 20 per cent over four years.

The employees have been without a collective agreement since December 31, 2023.

“So in terms of contract negotiations, they have been going on for over a year,” Gascon said. “From the Port of Montreal’s perspective, the latest printing techniques are now closing the Port of Montreal. Of course it’s been going on for a few weeks now, because we’re culminating in a lockout. So from the Port of Montreal’s perspective, we want the conflict to be resolved so we can get back to work.

“The Port of Montreal is not the employer and we do not have the same decisions that are made. What we need to see is a solution.”

The lockout in Montreal comes as employers and the union representing regulators are also embroiled in a labor dispute in B.C., where dock workers are also being locked out, resulting in a paralysis of container freight traffic at terminals on Canada’s west coast.

“The government has tools and we have options, but it is their decision,” Gascon said. “They have been working with both parties over the past year to negotiate that the federal mediator would provide guidance to both parties. So it is up to them whether or not they want to intervene.”