Last chance negotiations are taking place to try to avoid a strike at the St. Lawrence Seaway on Sunday at 12:01 a.m.
This strategic transportation route runs from the Jacques-Cartier Bridge in Montreal to Niagara in Ontario.
The large pan-Canadian union Unifor, which has five affected local sections in Quebec and Ontario, sent a strike notice to the employer, the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation.
These are 361 employees unionized with Unifor, who transport ships along the Seaway, particularly in the locks, including maintenance and operations employees, as well as engineers and supervisors.
Unifor, which is affiliated with the FTQ in Quebec, claims to have had no other choice, given the stalled negotiations, according to him. These began in June and the parties are in conciliation, under federal jurisdiction.
“Negotiations are plateauing, have plateaued pretty quickly. Then we had to face the facts yesterday that what was proposed to us by the employer did not represent significant enough progress for us to see the possibility of an agreement this week. So, we had no other choice than to notify the employer that we could be on strike as of midnight Sunday morning,” summarized Hugues Perreault, Unifor national representative and union advisor, in an interview.
Salaries are the main point in dispute. Union members believe that the salary offers are “clearly below expectations,” reports Mr. Perreault.
If the strike were indeed to be called during the night from Saturday to Sunday, “we must expect that there will be no ships able to pass through the Seaway, either upstream or downstream. downstream,” warns Mr. Perreault.
“So the entire trade corridor between Niagara and Montreal will be completely closed,” he notes, adding that 4,000 ships circulate there each year to transport all kinds of goods.
The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation recalls that the seaway occupies a strategic place for the transport of various goods, not only for eastern Canada, but for North America. Grain ships, in particular, transit there.
“Transporting goods by sea is an important part of North America’s economy and supply chain. In particular, this union action would have an impact on grain movements, at a time when the world is in critical need of this essential product, even though supply has been affected by the situation in Ukraine and the increased frequency of global extreme weather events,” the employer argued.
“If unionized workers actually go on strike, the St. Lawrence Seaway will be closed to all traffic,” she warns.
The Corporation says it has “begun to implement its detailed plans to ensure an orderly, safe shutdown of the network within the 72-hour notice period” given by the Unifor union.
