The dust will not have time to settle at the Port of Montreal since the employment contract of the longshoremen – forced to return to work last year after the adoption of a special law – will expire at the end of 2023. So decided the arbitrator who decided the most recent dispute between the workers and the Association of Maritime Employers (MEA).
This decision, rendered last Friday, sets the salary increases of some 1,100 employees represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), affiliated with the FTQ, at 18% over five years. Their collective agreement expired on December 31, 2018.
“One thing is certain, we would have preferred more than a year of stability at the Port of Montreal,” commented the MEA on Monday in a statement sent to La Presse.
The union side did not want to comment since the content of arbitrator André G. Lavoie’s decision had not yet been presented to its members.
There was a first strike at the Port of Montreal in the summer of 2020 and another walkout the following spring since the SCPF and the MEA had not been able to find common ground. The main points in dispute revolved around work schedules, work-family balance and disciplinary measures.
The Trudeau government was quick to adopt a special law, sanctioned on April 30, 2021. The longshoremen were thus forced to return to the docks. CUPE had turned to the Superior Court of Quebec to invalidate the law. The case is still pending.