The three-day partial strike at the Port of Montreal will continue for a second day on Tuesday, as the court rejected the Maritime Employers’ Association’s request to prevent it.
The strike is partial in the sense that it only affects two terminals of the Termont company, Viau and Maisonneuve, at the port of Montreal.
Approximately 320 of the 1,300 longshore workers, members of the local section of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) affiliated with the FTQ, find themselves exercising this partial strike mandate lasting three days.
The strike is to continue until Thursday morning; work will resume at 7 a.m.
Meanwhile, both parties confirmed on Monday that they had been summoned by the mediator on Sunday without any progress. The strike was therefore called Monday morning at 7 a.m. And no further mediation meetings are planned at this time.
On Monday, Federal Transport Minister Anita Anand called on the parties to return to the negotiating table and find a way to reach an agreement. “The Port of Montreal is essential to our supply chains. The parties must return to the negotiating table and do the work necessary to reach an agreement. I am monitoring the situation closely with my colleague, Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon. »
PHOTO JUSTIN TANG, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Anita Anand, Federal Minister of Transport
Negotiations have been going on for a year; they began in September 2023. The collective agreement expired on December 31.
On Sunday, the Maritime Employers’ Association (MAA) addressed the Canadian Industrial Relations Board – the administrative tribunal specializing in federal labor law – to ask it to cancel the union’s strike notice and request a declaration that the union had breached its duty to bargain in good faith.
The Employers’ Association criticized the union in particular for targeting Termont with its means of pressure, even though he is only one of the employers who are members of the association and is not the negotiating party vis-à-vis the union.
She also explained that the moorers on site “do not choose the terminals or the ships with which they are called upon to work. The moorers on duty cannot choose the work they will do or not to work in Termont.” She deplored that as a result, she “will have to continue to deploy mooring operators, paying them their remuneration, while they have announced that they will refuse to do the portion of their work that concerns Termont.”
But after hearing the evidence, the Canada Industrial Relations Board concluded that the strike notice complied with the Canada Labor Code and that “no evidence shows that the Union contravened its obligation to negotiate properly.” faith with the AEM”.