A lockout was decreed at the port of Quebec, Thursday noon, in the middle of the cruise season.
The relevant local of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), affiliated with the FTQ, and the Société des arrimeurs de Québec, which brings together the employers, confirmed the information.
CUPE represents the 81 longshoremen working at the Port of Quebec.
On August 30, the longshoremen voted in favor of a pressure action mandate that could go as far as a strike, by a vote of 98.5%. They could theoretically go on strike as early as September 11, but they didn’t.
12 hour shifts
The union says the employer wants to implement 12-hour shifts, which undermines work-family balance.
He specified that since the adoption of the pressure tactics mandate, its members had begun to exercise certain means to increase the balance of power at the bargaining table.
“It’s really terrible that the employer is able to fire our members while we are still at the bargaining table,” commented the union representative on file for CUPE, Dominic Cordeau.
“Not only is the employer hurting the local economy by slowing down the stevedoring service at the port, but it will also hurt the international image of our city, because we are in the middle of cruise season,” said added the union adviser.
“irreconcilable positions”
For its part, the Société des stevedores affirms that it decreed the lockout because it was “placed in an untenable situation” and that the means of pressure of the longshoremen were accentuated “from day to day”.
“The positions of the parties are irreconcilable,” maintains the Society of Riggers. “Union demands are impossible to satisfy in the current context,” she adds.
The union maintains its confidence in the negotiation process that has been launched. “We always believe that the solution to our differences lies at the negotiation table,” commented Mr. Cordeau.
On its website, the Port of Quebec describes itself as a “Canadian international trade hub in Quebec.” Some 28 million tonnes have been transshipped there in the past year, “ranking the port among the five most important in the country”.
The Port of Quebec also indicates that it generates $1.3 billion in economic spinoffs in Canada and that 236,715 visitors were brought by international cruises in 2019, generating $221 million in economic spinoffs.