ILWU hold vote seeking mandate for possible job action

Strike votes are being held at ports across British Columbia this week, including Prince Rupert as the International Longshore and Warehouse Union seeks a strike mandate from its membership, with the goal of accelerating some movement on stalled contract negotiations.

The vote this week is actually more of a strike mandate vote, with the Union noting that it would have sixty days to make any decision on a strike once the votes are counted and if in the affirmative.

The union would then have to serve 72 hour notice of any labour disruption should they choose to follow that course of action.

The potential for labour action comes as the current labour deal expired one year ago and the union has found what it says is little in the way of movement when it comes to negotiations towards a new deal with the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association.

The negotiations towards a new deal have actually gone longer than that, as we noted back in January of 2018 the first talks to deliver a new contract actually had their start over seventeen months ago.

According to port industry reports, the most recent discussions have taken place with the assistance of Federal mediators.

A look at the now expired Collective Agreements can be reviewed from the BMCEA website.

The vote currently underway is being touted by union officials as a useful part of the collective bargaining process and that a strong mandate would indicate to the employer that members are in full support of their negotiating committee.

Should the union receive the mandate to call a strike it would bring the shipments of goods and resources to a standstill at many facilities up and down the coast.

The percolating labour issues come as both the Ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert continue to show strong throughput numbers heading towards the midway point of 2019.

Of particular concern for any labour action during the summer months would be the impact on the movement of agricultural products to global markets, with any stoppage reverberating across Canada with Canadian farmers the ones that may be the most affected.

That is something that could eventually bring the Federal government into the picture should any dispute take place and last for a lengthy period.

Voting on the request for a strike mandate started yesterday and will come to an end later today. There was no indication provided as to when the results will be made public.

For more items of note related to labour in the region see our archive page here.

Background on shipments through the Port of Prince Rupert can be found from our archive page here as well as our individual archive pages for the range of shipment terminals found along the Prince Rupert shoreline.

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