Federal Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan is launching an investigation to shed light on what led to the recent dispute at British Columbia ports.
“I will initiate proceedings under Section 106 of the Canada Labor Code to examine the structural issues underlying this recent dispute, as well as similar disputes that have occurred at our ports across Canada” , the minister said in a statement on Wednesday.
He said officials will immediately start looking at reports of past disputes.
According to O’Regan, the goal is to find long-term solutions to create a “harmonious working environment” between unions and employers in future collective bargaining.
Labor law experts say the federal government has limited options to prevent future work stoppages similar to the port strike, which took place July 1-13 in British Columbia and froze transportation goods worth billions of dollars.
David Camfield, associate professor of labor studies at the University of Manitoba, explains that workers’ right to strike in Canada is already “very tightly circumscribed”, since only unionized workers can take action at a specific time after the expiration of a collective agreement.
Camfield says government pressure to further limit strike action during collective bargaining – an act protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms – risks sparking legal challenges and bogged down in court .
The International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union of Canada, which represents about 7,400 workers, announced last Friday that its members had voted nearly 75% in favor of ratifying a tentative agreement.
Terms of the agreement ratified by the union and the BC Maritime Employers Association include the employers’ commitment to train workers to maintain the new equipment.
The contracting out of maintenance work to third parties had been one of the most contentious points of the dispute.
The four-year agreement also contains several workers’ compensation provisions, including an increase in hourly wages, which will reach a base rate of $57.51 by 2026.
The agreement also provides for an increase in the “lump sum pension for modernization and mechanization”, which will reach $96,250 in 2026 for eligible retirees, in addition to normal pension rights.