Freight shippers urged the Commons Trade committee on Thursday to consider revising the Canada Labour Code to classify port workers as essential.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the designation would require that all disputes be resolved through binding arbitration to prevent future longshore strikes.“There is a good case to be made for expanding the definition of essential service,” testified Robert Ballantyne, senior advisor with the Freight Management Association of Canada. The Labour Code section 87.4.1 currently does not classify longshore workers as essential to “the safety or health of the public.”“While the Freight Management Association respects the rights of workers, there does have to be consideration of the impacts of work stoppages in many industries that are critical to the functioning of the Canadian economy and the resulting impacts on Canadian society,” said Ballantyne. “How do we balance the rights of approximately 7,000 West Coast port workers with the rights of millions of Canadians across the country?”A strike in July at the Port of Vancouver, led by the Longshore and Warehouse Union, went on for 13 days. According to the department of transportation, the strike disrupted approximately $10 billion worth of cargo and resulted in net economic losses of at least $750 million.Bruce Rodgers, executive director of the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association, described the strike as a "debacle."“The victims of strikes are not the workers who generally get their back pay upon settlement, nor the port and labour business managers,” testified Rodgers. “The victims are ordinary small businesses. Nobody compensates them for their losses.”“We see European employers and unions cooperating to ensure competitiveness and decent wages, yet in Canada, we seem condemned to strikes as a requirement of negotiation,” said Rodgers. The July strike was settled with a four-year, 19.2% wage increase to $57.51 per hour for Vancouver longshore workers.Michel Murray, advisor to the Canadian Union of Public Employees' Longshore Union Local 375 at the Port of Montréal, informed the Trade committee that no union engages in strike actions "for the fun of it."In 2022, the Montréal local led a five-day strike that ended with the threat of daily fines of $100,000 through a federal back-to-work bill.“Strikes are recognized as basic fundamental rights,” said Murray. “I should remind you the right to strike is recognized under the Charter of Rights.”“Of course, there are economic impacts,” said Murray. “Who would not strike without having an economic impact?”On August 9, 2022, the cabinet ordered a review of labour conditions in Canada's ports.“Workers and employers across Canada cannot face further disruption on the scale we saw,” Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan told reporters on July 19.
