Shippers call on feds to shield supply chains against labour disruptions

MONTREAL – Shippers are calling on Ottawa to better protect supply chains from labour disruptions after a string of work stoppages over the past 15 months, including a partial strike now playing out at the Port of Montreal.
In an open letter to the federal government Friday, executives from 10 industry groups demanded that political leaders take action to ease the threat of strikes at key transport hubs and arteries.
The organizations, which range from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business to the Western Grain Elevator Association, say recent job action has hurt employers, the economy and the country’s reputation as a reliable trading partner.
“Our supply chains have been severely tested in recent years, and it’s becoming inconceivable for a country like Canada to see its economy weakened with every collective agreement negotiation,” Karl Blackburn, president of the Quebec Council of Employers, said in an interview.
He and other signatories have asked Ottawa to consider how to balance workers’ rights against maintaining critical transport services, though the letter offers no policy proposals.
“We’re loath to give any prescriptive suggestions about where they should go,” said Jason Card, a spokesman for the Chamber of Marine Commerce.
He highlighted the federal government’s two main levers for dispute resolution: back-to-work legislation and binding arbitration from the country’s labour tribunal.
Some experts say both options risk undermining workers’ collective bargaining rights.
Snarled supply chains do not undercut a strike’s justification, says Margot Young, a law professor at the University of British Columbia. Rather, they heighten a job action’s potency.
“That’s actually what lends the workers leverage. If it were not convenient, then there would be no bargaining power for the workers,” she said.
“Without the ability for workers to strike, the inequality and the power between the employer and the employees is deeply problematic and deeply conducive to exploitation of workers.”
Conversely, Card argued Ottawa’s back-to-work mechanisms amount to “discretionary measures that politicize supply chains” and offer little predictability.
“You’re pitting the interests of labour against the interests of consumers and businesses,” he said.
Despite steering clear of proposals for reform, Card said the United States offers one blueprint on how to handle transport standoffs.
Legislation allows the president to create an emergency board to investigate major labour disputes that involve railways or airlines. Work stoppages are prohibited during the process.
The board issues recommendations within 30 days, followed by a one-month cooling off period. If no deal has been reached, the parties must then explain to the board why they have not accepted its proposals. Only after that plays out do strikes and lockouts become an option.
Card said the board effectively acts as a pressure valve and a means of clarifying the issues at stake.
“What they’re doing is they’re getting underneath the situation to have facts that everyone can look at: ‘This is why we’re at loggerheads.’ Then everyone’s working from the same information,” he said.
In Canada, federal mediators often work with both sides to try to find a compromise and secure a contract — before and after job action kicks off. At the moment, two of them are overseeing talks between Montreal port employers and the union representing nearly 1,200 dockworkers who launched a strike on all overtime shifts on Thursday.
Parties can also agree to enter into binding arbitration.
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said each side has a responsibility to reach a deal quickly during negotiations.
He noted that in April his predecessor appointed a commission to dig deeper into the root causes of B.C.’s port strike and ultimately make supply chains sturdier, with recommendations expected this spring.
After last summer’s railway shutdown, a similar examination into “why we experience repeated conflicts” in that sector could also be in the offing, he said.
“Our government will do everything in its power to preserve the stability and certainty of our economy, our supply chains and Canada’s strong global reputation as a trading nation,” MacKinnon said in an emailed statement.
Cargo highways and hubs have faced several labour disruptions over the past four years, on top of the backlogs and bottlenecks of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The two main railways shut down operations for several days in August amid a lockout prompted by strike threats, halting freight and commuter traffic across the country.
Last October, an eight-day strike by employees on the locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway stopped shipments of grain, iron ore and gasoline along the trade corridor.
A strike by 7,400 B.C. dockworkers dragged on for 13 days in July 2023, shutting down the country’s biggest port and costing the economy billions of dollars.
And in Montreal, longshore workers went on strike for five days in April 2021 and in August 2020 in a 12-day job action that left 11,500 containers languishing on the waterfront.
Despite those interventions, Blackburn of the Quebec employers council said the status quo still fails to head off labour impasses.
“It’s not normal for a few hundred workers at the Port of Montreal who decide to go on strike to weaken the entire Canadian supply chain,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:CNR, TSX:CP)