(Montreal) There has been no significant progress in the last hours during discussions between the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation and the Unifor union, both parties agreed Saturday afternoon, which continue to negotiate in order to avoid the triggering of a strike at the last minute.
Union members working at the Seaway voted 99% in favor of a strike mandate and gave their employer 72 hours’ notice earlier this week. The walkout must therefore be triggered at 12:01 a.m. Sunday.
These 361 union members work in the maintenance, supervision, engineering service and various navigation operations of the Seaway, which extends from the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, in Montreal, to Niagara, in Ontario, via the locks.
Both parties have already made it known that in the event of a strike, all navigation on this axis would be interrupted. About 4,000 ships pass through the Seaway each year, including cargoes of grain, totaling $16.7 billion worth of goods last year.
Salary is the main point in dispute.
According to the management side, the union is demanding salary increases modeled on negotiations in the automobile industry. However, she argues that the situation is different at the Seaway, where wages do not lag behind inflation, as is the case among auto manufacturers, in her opinion.
“Despite recent increases in inflation, Seaway workers have negotiated wages well above inflation over the past 20 years and today find themselves nearly 10% ahead of inflation », Supported the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation in a press release published Saturday.
Faced with this version of the employer, the Quebec director of Unifor, Daniel Cloutier, wanted to rectify the situation.
“The requests were submitted to the employer well before the outcome of the auto sector negotiations was known. The process has been underway for a while,” he argued.
“It’s a futile debate. Should we understand that because there are workers who would have made earnings higher than inflation in the last 10 or 15 years, in some of those years they would have to lose today? today while we are experiencing an inflation crisis? »
Talks began on June 19 and 20 with the help of a conciliator. The two sides held additional meetings in September and resumed negotiations on October 17.
As for the last blitz before the strike, negotiations resumed Saturday afternoon and must continue “until the last minute.” When speaking with The Canadian Press, however, Mr. Cloutier confirmed that the two parties were still “1000 nautical miles” apart when it came to salaries.
“For the moment, we have not seen anything significant that would allow us to adjust the schedule, so everything indicates that we are going to go on strike this evening at 12:01 a.m.,” said Mr. Cloutier.
For his part, the federal Minister of Transport, Pablo Rodriguez, invited both parties to continue negotiations in order to avoid a work stoppage on the Seaway.
“Federal mediators support ongoing negotiations between the (St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation) and Unifor. The best deals are made at the negotiating table. We must stay focused on the work done at the negotiating table,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.