Unifor, which represents about 360 Seaway workers across five locals in the two provinces, announced Thursday its members had voted to ratify a three-year agreement retroactive to April 1.

The maintenance, operations and clerical group of employees voted 85 per cent in favour, and the supervisory group 87 per cent in favour, of the agreement reached Oct. 29, Unifor said in a release.

The agreement provides for annual wage increases of five, four and four per cent plus a $2,000 signing bonus, the union said.

The successful ratification vote follows a strike that ran Oct. 22-30 and halted grain shipments and all other freight traffic on the waterway.

The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp., the not-for-profit organization in charge of Canadian seaway operations, said seaway staff and “marine industry partners” had worked since navigation restarted on the morning of Oct. 30 to clear a backlog of waiting vessels and the re-opening plan was “fully implemented” by Nov. 1.

The SLSMC said Thursday it would “continue to take measures to maximize the movement of vessels carrying essential cargo along the Seaway” in coming weeks, leading up to the end of the navigation season.

Expected closing dates for the 2023 season haven’t yet been announced. For its 2022 season, the Seaway closed on Jan. 1, 2023 on its Montreal-Lake Ontario section and Jan. 9, 2023 on the Welland Canal; both sections reopened for the 2023 season on March 22. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation (SLSMC) and Unifor, the union representing the workers, announced the new agreement separately Sunday evening. Unionized workers had been on strike since just after midnight the previous Sunday.

SLSMC said Sunday it would start its “recovery program” immediately and would start passing ships “progressively” Monday as employees were due to return to work starting at 7 a.m. ET.

Details of the proposed agreement are expected to be released once the deal passes a ratification vote. SLSMC CEO Terence Bowles said the agreement is “fair for workers and secures a strong and stable future for the Seaway.”

“For the first time in 55 years seaway workers took the very hard decision to go on strike. They did so to fight for a more respectful workplace and for an agreement that reflects today’s economic times,” Unifor national president Lana Payne said in the union’s release.

“They have shown that the best deal is reached at the bargaining table, and I congratulate the committee on their outstanding work on behalf of their members.”

Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan, in a post to social media platform X on Sunday evening, thanked the SLSMC, union and federal mediators “for your commitment to the negotiating table.”

SLSMC had sought a ruling from the Canada Industrial Relations Board as to whether Seaway workers would be obligated to continue to serve bulk grain vessels, but a CIRB ruling hadn’t yet been released as of Monday morning.

The Canada Labour Code requires longshore workers to serve bulk grain ships in the event of a strike or lockout, such as during the B.C. ports strike earlier this year.

After the Seaway strike began the previous Sunday, groups such as Grain Farmers of Ontario had called on the federal government to ensure continued grain movement.

“This is a crucial time for the grain harvest in Ontario and the closure of the St. Lawrence Seaway could mean that, in a matter of days, many farmers will have nowhere to deliver grain to and we risk the grain staying on the field too long to be viable,” GFO chair Brendan Byrne had said in a release Oct. 23.

“We need governments at every level to do whatever they can to ensure the grain keeps moving. Farmers need it. Our food system needs it. Our economy needs it.”

GFO had also warned that a prolonged strike could back up grain in Western Canada, if port terminals at Thunder Bay were unable to move grain into the Seaway system before freeze-up.

“This strike served as an important reminder of the risks inherent in our export transport system and how quickly a chain reaction can be set off that will have dire consequences,” Byrne said in a separate GFO release Monday, after the tentative deal was reached.

“We urge all parties to continue working together to ensure closures of the Seaway do not happen in the future.”

Fertilizer Canada, which represents Canadian fertilizer producers and sellers, had said in a separate release Saturday that the Seaway “is less than 60 days away from closing for winter, which limits the time available to work through the backlog caused by the strike that compounds each day.”

Exports of Canadian potash were “heavily impacted” by delays from the longshore workers’ strike at the West Coast in July and had been relying on eastern ports, especially Thunder Bay, to “support recovery,” Fertilizer Canada said.

The Seaway also handles imports of fertilizer for farmers in Eastern Canada, who “have a short window to apply fertilizer and any disruption to the supply chain can threaten getting fertilizer to farmers in time and jeopardize food security,” the organization said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Unifor, which represents about 360 Seaway workers across five locals in Ontario and Quebec, had served Seaway management with 72 hours’ strike notice on Wednesday.

In a release dated Sunday, it said negotiations “failed to reach a satisfactory agreement” by its deadline just before midnight.

The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. (SLSMC) said in a separate release dated Sunday that an “orderly shutdown” of the waterway system took place during the 72-hour period, allowing for vessels to clear the Seaway.

No vessels are waiting to exit the system, SLSMC said, but added there are “over 100 vessels outside the system, which are impacted by the situation.”

SLSMC said it’s also waiting now for a response to its Canada Industrial Relations Board application, seeking a ruling under the Canada Labour Code for Unifor to provide employees during a strike so vessels “engaged in the movement of grain” can continue to move through the system.

The Labour Code provisions relating to grain handling at port terminals had allowed for bulk grain traffic to continue during the British Columbia longshore workers’ strike this summer.

The Seaway system, SLSMC said, “will remain shut down until an agreement can be reached, whether it be temporary or tentative, as we work diligently to minimize disruption for all stakeholders.”

“We negotiated in good faith right up to the last moment, but we cannot allow workers’ rights to be compromised,” Unifor’s Quebec director Daniel Cloutier said in Sunday’s release. “We remain open to discussion and hope that the employer will reconsider its position for the good of all.”

SLSMC had said in a separate release Saturday that the union “continues to demand wage increases patterned after the current automotive negotiations” between automakers and unions in that sector.

However, the company said, the Seaway’s situation is “vastly different” as automotive workers “had fallen behind inflation following give-backs in past years.”

Seaway workers by comparison “today find themselves almost 10 per cent ahead of inflation,” the company said.

“This impasse is extremely unfortunate but our members remain committed to getting a fair agreement,” Unifor national president Lana Payne said in the union’s release Sunday. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Unifor, the union representing over 360 seaway workers across five union locals in Ontario and Quebec, on Wednesday served the corporation with 72 hours’ strike notice.

The SLSMC said Friday an application is being made to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, seeking an order to confirm how section 87.7(3) of the Canada Labour Code — relating to movement of grain during a strike or lockout — will apply in this case.

Under that section, either a union or an employer can apply to the CIRB to determine any question of how section 87.7(1) applies and “make any order it considers appropriate to ensure compliance with that subsection.”

Section 87.7(1) of the Code requires longshore or other workers to “continue to provide the services they normally provide to ensure the tie-up, let-go and loading of grain vessels at licensed terminal and transfer elevators, and the movement of the grain vessels in and out of a port.”

That section of the Code kept bulk grain vessels moving during a month-long B.C. longshore workers’ strike this summer. However, traffic in containerized pulse crops and other agricultural goods and commodities does not have such an exemption under the Code.

In all, as of Friday, there are more than 80 vessels, 40 of which are ocean-going, still in the Seaway, the SLSMC said.

The corporation said it “will continue negotiating in an effort to reach a new agreement without disruption of service” before Sunday.

Unifor said in a separate release Friday it’s “willing to continue negotiations with (SLSMC) after the scheduled bargaining dates” to try to reach an agreement ahead of the strike deadline of 11:59 p.m. Saturday.

Talks “will continue until the very last minute in an attempt to reach a deal,” the union said, but added that “at this time the union and employer remain 1,000 nautical miles apart on wages.”

SLSMC said it hopes talks can lead to a solution “adapted to the Seaway’s reality as a not-for-profit corporation.”

However, it added, progress “continues to be slow as the high union wage demands could potentially lead to increasing tolls to a level that would make the waterway less competitive and eventually increase the price for the goods that transit through it.”

“It’s really up to the employer at this point to seal this deal and avoid any transit disruption,” Unifor Quebec director Daniel Cloutier said in the union’s release. “These are jobs that require intense training, a high level of understanding of the health and safety risks, and that carry enormous responsibility for the well-being of seafarers and their cargo.”

SLSMC added Friday that the “necessary steps for an orderly shutdown are now underway, including providing cut-off times for vessels to safely clear the Seaway system” before a work stoppage begins. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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For example, the country intends to implement the Modern Slavery Act in January, aimed at fighting forced labour and child labour in global supply chains.

That’s why the recent words of a UN special rapporteur were a bit of a blow to the national ego.

Tomoya Obokata, a professor of international law and human rights and an expert in transnational organized crime, human trafficking and modern slavery, said Canada’s temporary foreign worker systems are ready-made for abuse. He went so far as to say they were “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.”

Reaction to his comments was predictably divided.

Advocacy groups for migrant worker rights lauded Obokata, saying he confirmed what they’ve known for years.

Grower groups were less impressed, noting it was unfair to make overly broad generalizations of farmers.

The main criticism seems to be that work permits are tied directly to a single employer.

There are reasons for that. Recruiting and bringing workers to Canada isn’t cheap or easy. But it does set up a one-sided dynamic.

I’ve had bosses that I didn’t enjoy over the years. Sometimes I bit my tongue, reminded myself that they call it ‘work,’ not ‘fun,’ for a reason and got to it. Other times I called them on whatever the sticking point was and we found a solution that worked for both of us.

On few occasions, I quit and found something else to do with my time and energy that paid my bills. To be clear, if I wasn’t meeting their needs, they had the same right as I did to sever the relationship.

That’s a functioning labour market at work. Everyone is a willing participant and, if they don’t like it, they can move along.

But a TFW is in a different and entirely more precarious position. Finding another employer isn’t as simple as going down the road to the next farm — though if ag’s labour market is as tight as touted, they’d no doubt get hired.

Quitting and going home isn’t simple either. Home is likely thousands of kilometres and dollars away, and they may still owe someone the costs of getting here.

If they’re in rural Canada, how do they get to an airport, perhaps hundreds of miles away in an urban centre, without transportation?

One by one, these issues stack up until the employer has all the poker chips, regardless of their good intentions. That’s all fine, if it’s an honourable employer who simply wants an honest day’s work for a fair wage.

Unfortunately, as several high-profile incidents have highlighted, that’s not always the case. In any group of people, there will be a subset who don’t act honourably unless they’re forced to.

This is where government must step in. It has to be the rules setter, the arbitrator and the police, when necessary. Its role is to ensure that this policy doesn’t spin off unintended consequences and bad behaviour.

Bad headlines are often the result when it fails.

Canada had long been a producer of premium high-quality food products. A big part of that has been our clean image.

Japan, which takes about $4.3 billion worth of our agricultural products each year, is known as a country of wide-open spaces and a clean environment. Allegations of near slavery surely don’t match what they want in a trading partner.

This is Canada’s first truly public and high-profile black eye on the issue, and it should serve as a wakeup call for any employer dependent on temporary foreign workers, regardless of their sector.

These employers should demand more rigorous government oversight, because the ability for their much-needed employees to come to Canada is entirely dependent on the political goodwill of other Canadians.

It’s written right into the name of the program — temporary. Those work permits have to be signed every year before the workers can arrive.

Canada’s self-image, accurate or not, is that it’s a nice country, full of nice folks. Shake that identity enough and, at some point, the results might not be pretty if you need to hire a foreign worker.

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The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU Canada) — which represents about 7,400 workers at various Vancouver and Prince Rupert port terminals and facilities — said Tuesday its members had returned to the picket lines late that afternoon, after a caucus of ILWU Canada leadership rejected a federal mediators’ proposal for a four-year agreement.

But the CIRB, in a ruling Wednesday morning, said it had since received an application from the B.C. Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) — which represents port employers in collective bargaining — seeking a declaration of an “unlawful strike.”

The BCMEA had argued 72 hours’ notice should be given before strike action could resume, while ILWU Canada argued “no such notice was required since there was an ongoing strike,” the CIRB said.

The board said Wednesday it considered both sides’ submissions and has now ruled the resumption of strike action to be unlawful. The CIRB has ordered the union to “cease and desist from participating in strike activities” until the relevant terms of the federal Labour Code are met.

Until then, the CIRB said, all striking longshore workers must now “immediately perform the duties of their employment as per the collective agreement and applicable dispatch rules.”

In other words, federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan said in a tweet Wednesday morning, “This strike is illegal.”

In response, ILWU Canada said later Wednesday morning it will appeal the CIRB ruling and served the employer group with a fresh 72-hour notice, which would restart the strike on Saturday (July 22).

Hours later, however, ILWU Canada president Rob Ashton published a memo saying the union’s strike notice, which would put the start time on July 22 at 9 a.m. PT, “has now been removed.”

The memo gave no reason for the removal. The BCMEA, in a separate statement later Wednesday, acknowledged the removal, saying “the past 24 hours have demonstrated that this continues to be a fluid and unpredictable situation.”

O’Regan and federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, in a separate statement late Tuesday night, said they were now “looking at all options” and “will have more to say on this tomorrow.”

ILWU Canada’s B.C. port members had gone on strike starting July 1, returning to work when the tentative deal was announced last Thursday. The ministers said late Tuesday they’d since been informed by the BCMEA that its employer members “accepted this deal in full.”

However, the ministers said, “we were also informed that, despite initially agreeing to recommend the terms of settlement, the ILWU Canada’s leadership had decided not to recommend ratification of the terms to their members.”

The ministers, in Tuesday’s statement, did not list their remaining options, nor did they use the phrase ‘back-to-work legislation’ — an option which would involve recalling Parliament off its summer break.

But they did say “workers and employers across Canada cannot face further disruption on the scale we saw last week… We have been patient. We have respected the collective bargaining process. But we need our ports operating.”

Service for bulk grain vessels at West Coast ports is exempt from any longshore work stoppage under the federal Labour Code.

Several farmer and ag industry groups have been publicly calling for federal action to end the strike, however, as containerized pulse crops, perishables such as meat and produce, fertilizer and other goods face potential delays.

The BCMEA said Wednesday the strike to date has “caused immense damage to Canada’s trading reputation and disrupted at least $10 billion worth of cargo alone.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU Canada) on Wednesday morning served the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) with 72 hours’ strike notice, which would see strike action begin Saturday at 8 a.m. PT.

The BCMEA — which represents 49 employers at B.C.’s waterfront, such as ship owners and agents, stevedores and container and cruise ship terminal operators — emphasized in its statement Wednesday that any work stoppage “will not impact employees required to service grain vessels” as per the Canada Labour Code.

Under section 87.7 (1) of the Code, longshore workers “shall continue to provide the services they normally provide to ensure the tie-up, let-go and loading of grain vessels at licensed terminal and transfer elevators, and the movement of the grain vessels in and out of a port.”

Exports of grains, oilseeds and related byproducts through licensed elevators at Vancouver and Prince Rupert totalled 31.51 million tonnes in 2020-21, and were cut by drought to 17.55 million tonnes in 2021-22.

The ILWU, in a separate statement Wednesday, said its bargaining committee “has run out options at the bargaining table because the BCMEA and their member employers have refused to negotiate on the main issues.”

Those issues, the union said, include protection for its members against job losses caused by contracting-out and port automation, and against “record-high inflation and skyrocketing cost of living.”

Port employers, the union said, “have repaid our hard work and dedication with demands for major concessions. Their only objective is to take away rights and conditions from longshore workers after having gorged themselves on record profits during the pandemic.”

The ILWU and BCMEA have been in talks with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) since March 28, when the union filed a notice of dispute, the BCMEA said.

The employer association said it has since put forward “multiple proposals and positions in good faith, with the objective of making progress and achieving a fair deal at the table.” Talks are still scheduled to continue between the parties with FMCS on Thursday, BCMEA added.

The BCMEA said it’s also “open to any solution that brings both parties to a balanced agreement.” For one, it proposed binding mediation and arbitration, but added that the ILWU has so far “declined” that proposal.

Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a separate statement Wednesday that the FMCS will “keep supporting negotiations until an agreement is reached.”

All parties, the ministers said, understand “what is at stake for Canadians and our supply chains,” adding that port facilities and workers “are responsible for moving goods both nationally and internationally, and industries and consumers would feel the effects of a work stoppage.”

The ministers, in their statement, did not mention back-to-work legislation as an option to prevent a strike, saying instead that they “support the collective bargaining process because the best deals are made at the bargaining table.” The House of Commons adjourned for the summer on Wednesday last week.

The ministers said they “strongly encourage the parties to get back to the bargaining table and work together to reach an agreement.”

The ILWU’s previous contract dispute with port employers ended in a deal on May 30, 2019 following a BCMEA lockout that lasted just a few hours. –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s budget, released Tuesday, laid out a list of investments to “further strengthen Canada’s transportation systems and supply chain infrastructure.”

A non-financial line item in that envelope calls for the government to introduce amendments to the Canada Transportation Act for a “temporary extension, on a pilot basis” of the interswitching limit in the Prairie provinces, to “strengthen rail competition.”

Interswitching rules commit one rail carrier to pick up cars from a shipper, then deliver them to another railway for the line haul. Federal rules generally allow grain elevators and other shippers to use interswitching for up to a 30-km radius.

Expanding that maximum radius, the feds said Tuesday, “would support competition among rail carriers by enabling rail companies to access tracks owned by another rail provider within the limit, under rates regulated by the Canadian Transportation Agency.”

The previous Conservative government set up a temporary extension of the interswitching radius, to 160 km, in 2014, to the acclaim of several crop commodity groups — but that extension was sunsetted in 2016.

The Railway Association of Canada said Wednesday the 2014 extension was allowed to lapse “based on results from a previous pilot and recommendations contained in an independent study” — a reference to a 2015 review of the Canada Transportation Act.

The RAC, which represents almost 60 railways in Canada including Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways (CN, CP), ripped the current Liberal government’s proposal as a resurrection of a “failed policy” that was “misguided and harmful to Canada’s supply chains.”

“This policy will cause Canadians to pay more for virtually everything that moves by rail,” RAC CEO Marc Brazeau said Wednesday in a release, warning the policy “will incentivize congestion in our supply chains while disincentivizing private investment.”

“This pilot has been done before,” the RAC said, listing the impacts of “switching cargo multiple times” as slowing the movement of goods by one to two days, adding to greenhouse gas emissions and adding costs.

“The measures announced today will not improve the efficiency, capacity or reliability of Canada’s supply chains. They will do the exact opposite, as we saw under extended regulated interswitching that was in place from 2014 to 2016,” Brazeau said.

However, supporters of the 2014 extension estimated in 2016 that about 150 grain elevators on the Prairies were able to make use of interswitching with the 160-km radius, up from just 14 elevators previously.

One such supporter, Pulse Canada, in 2016 said freight rates were reduced on some routings, and that grain shippers were afforded more leverage in getting rail car capacity where needed, both as a result of the extended interswitching radius.

Gordon Bacon, Pulse Canada’s then-CEO, speaking in favour of extended interswitching in 2016, said that “in cases where railways have lost business due to competition, they are actively campaigning to get it back by offering rate reductions and improved levels of service.”

‘Down payment’

The RAC on Wednesday also panned another non-financial proposal from Tuesday’s budget — namely, for legislation that would ban the use of temporary replacement workers in federally regulated workplaces affected by work stoppages.

The RAC said a ban on replacement workers would mean rail service “will be disrupted more frequently,” strikes “will be more common and will last longer” and federal back-to-work legislation “will be required more often.”

Tuesday’s budget also earmarks $27.2 million over five years starting in 2023-24 for Transport Canada to establish a “Transportation Supply Chain Office.”

That office, the budget said, would “work with industry and other orders of government to respond to disruptions and better co-ordinate action to increase the capacity, efficiency, and reliability of Canada’s transportation supply chain infrastructure.”

The budget noted the measures announced Tuesday “are a down payment on Canada’s National Supply Chain Strategy,” which the government said “will be released in the coming months and will be informed by the recommendations of the National Supply Chain Task Force report.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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CN, Unifor Local 100 and Unifor Council 4000 on Monday announced they have reached four new tentative collective agreements to cover about 3,000 railway employees, who had voted earlier this month in favour of strike action.

The employees were in a position to strike as early as Tuesday (March 21) if 72 hours’ notice had been given — but Unifor said in a separate statement Saturday its team had decided to continue negotiating with CN in Montreal through the weekend.

The company and union both said no details of the tentative deals would be released publicly until ratification votes are completed. Unifor said Monday those votes “will be held in the near future.”

CN CEO Tracy Robinson said in a statement Monday the company is “very pleased to have reached these tentative agreements” and “has always been committed to achieving negotiated settlements to improve the conditions of this important group of employees.”

Unifor Local 100 represents skilled trades in CN’s mechanical shops, while Council 4000 represents intermodal and clerical workers, mechanics and excavator operators.

Despite the number of employees who would potentially be off the job in the event of either a strike or lockout, CN had said March 6 it would not expect any impact on operations as it had “contingency plans in place and the safe operations of our railway will continue.”

“These negotiations were fraught with challenges, including demands for concessions by CN,” Unifor national president Lana Payne said in a separate release Monday.

“With the solid support of the membership, the bargaining committees were able to stand up to this large profitable company and persevere to secure the tentative agreements.”

Unifor said its bargaining committees had been in talks with CN since October. The collective agreements for the affected employees all expired at the end of December. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Ballots from members of Unifor Local 100 and Unifor Council 4000 went 98 and 97 per cent in support of strike action, in votes held over the past two weeks, Unifor said in a statement to members Sunday.

Unifor’s bargaining committees are set to meet with CN brass again during the week of March 13, the union said in the same statement.

Absent an agreement, Unifor said the earliest its members could go on strike is March 21, following 72 hours’ notice.

Lana Payne, Unifor’s national president, said the strike votes provide “a strong show of support to achieve a fair and equitable contract. I know that everyone in both bargaining units and bargaining committees are ready to build off this mandate and bargain a fair collective agreement.”

CN had said Feb. 17 it does “not expect any (Unifor-related) labour action to impact our operations.” Asked Monday if that situation has since changed, a CN representative referred the question back to the Feb. 17 statement.

Asked Monday if an absence of the company’s unionized mechanics would be a concern from a rail safety perspective, CN’s representative said “we have contingency plans in place and the safe operations of our railway will continue.”

Unifor represents about 3,000 CN workers in mechanical, intermodal and clerical positions across the country through five collective agreements, all of which expired at the end of December.

CN said last month its latest offer to the unions had included “increases in net pay and benefit” and “resolves outstanding issues between the parties” while providing “improved working conditions for all represented employees.”

Unifor in a notice to members last month said CN’s pay offer “falls below today’s inflationary rates” and the company is also seeking an “offensive package of concessions.”

The union also said at the time that CN proposed a new “flex-style” benefit plan that “contained very little in actual material improvements and what benefit levels were improved will come at a cost to you, our members.”

In its statement Sunday, Unifor said that if CN is “genuine” about returning next week to the table and securing a new contract, the company “will remove their concessionary demands and start bargaining fairly with the union.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

UPDATED, March 7: Article updated to include earliest possible date of job action.

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