A federal court on Thursday reiterated its position that employers at the Port of Montreal cannot force their employees to work during a strike, paving the way for the resumption of negotiations before possible pressure tactics.
In a summary decision, the Canada Industrial Relations Board rejected a request from the Maritime Employers Association to consider port work an essential service in an effort to avoid a strike in the sector.
Employers and the union, representing 2,100 port workers, failed to reach a new collective agreement before it expired on December 31, but the matter was before the court at the time, which postponed possible industrial action .
To explain its recent decision, the Council cited a 2020 decision that found the Maritime Employers Association failed to demonstrate imminent and serious risks to the health and safety of the public – the criteria for an essential activity – in case of work stoppage.
“In this decision, the Council concluded that no stevedoring activity should be maintained at the Port of Montreal in the event of a strike,” wrote vice-president Louise Fecteau, indicating that this decision had been confirmed by the Court of federal appeal.
There is nothing in the employer’s observations that leads the Council to review its previous decision.
Louise Fecteau, vice-president of the Canadian Industrial Relations Board
The Maritime Employers’ Association said its priority was to reach a negotiated agreement on the collective agreement, with the help of federal mediators.
” Even if [le jugement] does not meet our expectations, we remain convinced that the continuity and stability of the supply chain is of the utmost importance,” spokesperson Isabelle Pelletier said in an email.
Strikes
In the summer of 2020, Montreal longshoremen launched a 13-day strike that left thousands of containers stranded on the dock of Canada’s second-largest port.
Last summer, a strike by 7,400 British Columbia longshore workers stretched over 12 days, closing the country’s largest port and costing the economy billions of dollars.
During the 2020 strike in Montreal, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees indicated that they would continue to provide mooring services during work stoppages only for supply to Newfoundland and Labrador and grain ships, in order to comply respectively with the Federal Labor Code and the court decision.
The strike followed a 21-month battle before the Administrative Labor Tribunal to determine whether essential services provisions applied to port employees.