By: Thomas I. Likness
Eagle News Service

(Eagle News) — Dockworkers on Canada’s Pacific coast plan to be back on the picket lines this weekend after rejecting a tentative contract settlement Tuesday.

The tentative deal ended a 13-day strike which shut down west coast ports creating a backlog of 63-thousand shipping containers.

But workers walked out again Tuesday after rejecting the deal in a ratification vote.

On Wednesday, the Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered them back to work, saying the union didn’t provide the required 72 hours notice.

Pickets are set to go up again at 9:00 a.m. Saturday.

Business groups are pressuring federal Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan to order the 74-hundred longshoremen back to work.

They say supply chains have already been affected with businesses laying off people because of a shortage of goods.

They add it will take several months to clear the backlog of goods stranded on the west coast.

So far the minister hasn’t indicated what his next move will be other than to say he is looking at all options.

“We have been patient. We have respected the collective bargaining process. But we need our ports operating,” O’Regan and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a joint statement on Twitter.

Contract insufficient

The four-year deal would have given union members pay raises and improved benefits.

But the union says the contract is too long and doesn’t address cost-of-living and job security issues.

The union is concerned about automation and contracting out maintenance work.

Before the workers can be ordered back, the government will have to recall Parliament.

And to do that, it has to give lawmakers 48 hours notice. The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade estimates the strike has cost the economy $10 billion dollars so far.
(Eagle News Service)