(Montreal) There has been no progress in the last hours during discussions between the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation and the Unifor union, deplored the management party Saturday afternoon, a few hours of the initiation of a strike.
Union members working at the Seaway voted 99% in favor of a strike mandate and gave their 72-hour notice to the employer earlier this week. The walkout is to be called 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, worth a total of $16.7 billion in 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 with 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.
For its part, on Friday, Unifor indicated that it was ready to negotiate “until the very last minute” with the employer to avoid the strike, but still noted that the two parties were “1000 nautical miles apart.” on the other with regard to salaries.
The 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.
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.
“The federal mediators support the ongoing negotiations between the CGVMSL and UNIFOR. The best deals are made at the negotiating table. We must remain focused on the work done at the negotiating table,” he said on X.