Vancouver Port Reopens After Lockout of Workers

Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in British Columbia went back to work Nov. 15, after the Canadian federal government threatened to intervene with back-to-work legislation.

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The British Columbia Maritime Employers Association locked out the longshoremen Nov. 7 when ILWU Local 500 officials refused to put BCMEA’s contract proposal to the members for a vote. The proposal was “not substantially different from the one rejected by our members in July by an 83% margin,” said Tom Dufresne, president of the union.

With the lifting of the lockout, drayage operations at the Port of Vancouver began returning to normal, according to port officials. U.S. trucking companies seemed little affected by the disruption of cargo movement at the Canadian port (11-5, p. 3), although there were reports of truck congestion at the U.S. border as Canadian operators headed south to pick up diverted shipments.

Companies and the union reached a settlement over the Nov. 13-14 weekend that Dufresne called acceptable. But that agreement did not touch on the chief issue that precipitated the conflict.

For the full story, see the Nov. 22 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.