(Montreal) Mediation will resume on Friday between the port of Montreal longshoremen’s union and the Maritime Employers’ Association.
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service has just summoned the two parties to a mediation session on Friday at 11 a.m.
The relaunch of mediation will occur the day after the resumption of activities at the two terminals of the Port of Montreal which had been affected by a three-day partial strike, from Monday 7 a.m. to Thursday 6:59 a.m.
The two terminals affected were those of Viau and Maisonneuve, of the Termont company. The walkout only affected 320 of the 1,200 longshoremen members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) affiliated with the FTQ.
The Montreal Port Authority, for its part, estimates that it will take some time to recover from the delay caused by the three days of partial walkout at the two terminals. “We are talking about up to six days a day of strike to resume normality,” she said on Thursday.
“In just three days, the impacts on our docks amount to more than 1,300 containers grounded, including food and medical products, more than 11,500 containers delayed, supply chain congestion, delivery delays and additional costs for businesses and consumers,” the Port Authority said.
“We continue to hope more than ever that the two parties reach a lasting agreement as quickly as possible, which would ensure in the long term the reliability and fluidity of a supply chain so essential to the economy and to society,” the Port Authority said.
Essential service?
Furthermore, the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal expressed its exasperation at seeing the supply chain temporarily interrupted by the three-day partial strike. She is directly asking that it be declared an essential service in the event of a labor conflict.
“It is unacceptable to periodically put our economy on pause in order to have influence in a negotiation. These repeated strikes are damaging our reputation as a logistics hub. We have been calling for many years for the government to recognize supply chains for what they are, essential services to our economy. It is time to decide in this direction to protect the economy and society as a whole,” said its president and CEO, Michel Leblanc.
In fact, essential services are those whose interruption could have the effect of endangering the health or safety of the public.