Activity at DP World Farview and many other terminals comes to a stop, as ILWU members take strike action

 

See updates on the status of labour negotiations at BC Ports from our update page here

The Ports of British Columbia are all but ghost towns and it has nothing to do with the Canada Day holiday, but rather, comes with the members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union members making good on their Strike Notice this morning.

Activity on the waterfront along the BC coast came to stop at 8AM as the more than 7,000 members took to their picket lines. 

A move which as our video above shows, left the DP World Terminal quiet, the cacophony of noise of a working port, instead features near silence and the Giant Cranes that now introduce Prince Rupert to the world remain fixed in their resting position.

For Prince Rupert, the two most prominent locations for the lines were at Scott Road and the road adjacent the Rail line into the DP World Facility. 

Facilities on Ridley Island are also subject to the labour stoppage with the exception of Prince Rupert Grain, that through a previous arrangement, the same will be the case for Cruise Ship Terminals in the province.

Members of ILWU 505 and their supporters at the picket line on the
Scott Road approach to the DP World Terminal on Saturday
(click on image to enlarge)

Shortly after the workers walked off the job, the BC Marine Employers Association which represents Port Terminal operators along the BC Coast issued a brief statement towards the labour dispute.

click to enlarge

There is no official statement from the ILWU posted to their website as of yet, however on an unofficial  Social Media Stream a message to the membership from ILWU President Rob Ashton has been posted.

click to enlarge

As we noted yesterday, Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach offered his support to the ILWU membership with a statement on Friday, 

That statement was one of a number of letters of solidarity that the ILWU posted to their website on Friday evening as the deadline to the strike call began to tick down.

The strike action of this morning came following a vote in mid-June that gave the ILWU negotiators a 99% plus mandate to take job action if required.

There has been no statement from the Federal Government yet in this first day of the Port labour stoppage, though as the BCMEA statement observed, Federal mediators stand ready to assist in the negotiations should the two sides look to resume them.

Follow the following links for any updates from the two parties:

BCMEA

ILWU

More notes on Labour themes in Prince Rupert can be reviewed here.